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Supervision in the Home.
With support from social workers and health visitors, many subnormal and
severely subnormal patients of all ages are able to live satisfactorily in the community.
It is essential that they and their parents are able to obtain assistance with their
problems and this is readily available through visiting officers. In this connection, it
is with regret that I report the loss of the benefit of specialist advice on individual
patients, by the death in November, 1967 of Dr. D. Watterson.
T'he total number of subnormal and severely subnormal persons under community
care at the end of 1967 was 228 compared with 224 in 1966. This does not include
those patients placed in residential accommodation under Guardianship and informal
foster care arrangements.
Guardianship and Informal Foster Care.
At the end of 1967, there were three patients under the Guardianship of the
Council (three at the end of 1966). There were also 17 under informal foster care
arrangements in homes or hostels run by voluntary societies and private homes (15 at
31st December, 1966). In order to avoid formal guardianship procedures, informal
placements are made wherever practicable. The Guardianship Society, Hove, is most
helpful in assisting in the placement of patients in suitable homes.
As Medical Officer of Health of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,
I represent the London Boroughs Association on the General Committee of the Guardianship
Society, Hove.
Admissions to Hospital.
The Borough is in the catchment area of Normansfield Hospital, Teddington,
which serves the districts of Twickenham, Teddington, Hampton and Hampton Wick;
Botleys Park Hospital, Chertsey, Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, and St. Ebba's
Hospital, Epsom, which cover the districts of Richmond and Barnes. The majority of
patients from the Richmond and Barnes area are admitted to Botleys Park Hospital.
Younger children are admitted to Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton. The following