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Mrs. T. Powell, psychotherapist, resigned in May after lengthy service both in Uxbridge and
Hayes and is greatly missed for her warmth and the stimulus of her views as a colleague, as well
as her skill and concern for her patients. Mrs. A. Zadik and Miss V. Hamilton, students on the
child psychotherapist course at the Tavistock Clinic, continue to combine work with children at
Uxbridge with more advanced stages of their training. Mr. D. Campbell, a senior student at the
Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic, was able to give considerable assistance through his wide
previous experience and training until September, when his course entailed full-time attendance.
Miss M. Sobat has been appointed to a psychotherapist vacancy to enable her to pay for her
training at the Tavistock Clinic, and when sufficiently advanced will be undertaking individual
treatment of children locally.
The psychologists have participated in the weekly conferences at which individual children
and broader clinical issues are discussed, and they continue to conduct in the majority of instances
the liaison between the Clinics and teachers, clarifying problems that children present in school
so as to allow the school staff to make best use of the facilities a particular school possesses.
The secretarial staff continue against expectation to get through a volume of work which has
always been considerable and has steadily increased with the increased numbers of professional
staff. While the clinic staff appreciate the limitations of there being only two secretaries at Uxbridge
and endeavour to moderate their demands for secretarial help, there are limits to the keeping of
records below which effective work cannot be kept up, and at times in the past year this point
has been approached. We continue to hope that fuller secretarial provision will become possible.
Clinic Organisation
While no Government decision has yet been made about the provision of child psychiatric
services, it must be anticipated that the medical side will be covered by the Area Health Board
and effective local arrangements will need to be ensured so that the staff of the clinics are able
to work as now in professional independence while able to maintain effective links with other
relevant social services. The Clinics continue to receive approaches for the placement of student
psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatric social workers which have to be mostly turned
down, not on the grounds that insufficient training and experience would be available to them
within the present setting, but that accommodation is insufficient. If it can be reasonably expected
that nationally competitive salary scales are to be paid to the psychiatric social workers and
psychotherapists in particular, then the amount and quality of help which the Clinics can provide,
not only to patients but to other agencies, can be expected to be maintained and, in course of
time, improved. The possibility of devising a scheme of training for psychiatric social workers
and psychotherapists through employment of recruits by the Borough while they are receiving
nationally recognised training is being actively explored.