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children attending the special care unit. This is sometimes the only opportunity of meeting the parents
of the children. The visit enables the physiotherapist to assess the need for suitable basic equipment,
to help the parents in coping with the child at home and also to offer advice concerning the child's
day to day physiotherapeutic management. The physiotherapist advises on the suitability of furniture,
such as chair and table sizes, correct wheelchair requirements or alterations needed to this equipment.
Demonstrations are given concerning correct methods of teaching a handicapped child to
walk and prevent bad posture; to teach new exercises which would be beneficial to the child and to
reinforce the work done at the treatment Clinic in school time.
Visits were made by the physiotherapists to the Disabled Lung Foundation, Kensington W.12,
The Children's Prosthetic Unit of Queen Mary Hospital, Roehampton, and one physiotherapist
attended a three day course on paediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street,
W.C.1.
The number of treatments at Moorcroft School during 1972=682; 5 sessions per week were
given to the school.
Westmead Clinic (Mrs. M. Bond—Senior Physiotherapist)
In April 1972 it was decided to extend the provision of physiotherapy within the scope of
the school health service to Westmead Clinic as at Uxbridge. Physiotherapy is now available for two
sessions per week. To some extent this alleviates the ever increasing number of children attending
at Uxbridge and also caters for the needs of children in the north of the Borough. Nevertheless it is
still a fully integrated part of Dr. Karim's Orthopaedic Clinic at Uxbridge where the under-fives are
seen as well as the greater number of older children. Both physiotherapists attend this clinic and
children requiring treatment at either Uxbridge or Westmead are referred back to Dr. Karim at regular
intervals. The selection of the children needing treatment between the two clinics means less
travelling for most children and therefore minimal absence from school.
The majority of treatments carried out at Westmead are for foot and lower limb defects—
however slight, e.g. pes planus with or without the associated genu valgum; postural correction;
pectoral and shoulder girdle mobility for respiratory conditions and/or associated postural defects.
Active or passive stretching exercises are given for a number of reasons e.g. in case of torsion
or tendon stretching. Frequently the involvement of the mother, or both parents is encouraged,
and the importance of supervising home exercises is stressed—also where simple strapping is required
to be done, as in over-lapping toes, between attendances at the clinic. Mothers are often advised
concerning the type of footwear required prior to buying new shoes, or the fitting of calipers where
worn, this latter usually applying to the handicapped child who is supervised in the home.
The total number of treatments given during the period was 184.
SPEECH THERAPY SERVICE
Miss G. C. Donald—Senior Speech Therapist
It is pleasant to report that there has been an improvement in the service that can be given to
school children needing speech therapy in the Borough during 1972. A full-time speech therapist
was recruited and took up post in January 1973 to reinforce the small staff of part-time therapists who
had tried to give as wide a cover as possible in the preceding year.
The following clinics now have speech therapists attending once or twice a week; Yiewsley,
Uxbridge, Oak Farm, Laurel Lodge, Grange Park, Elers Road, Westmead, Ruislip Manor, Minet,
Ickenham, Harefield and Northwood. In addition to these clinics, sessions are held in the special
schools, Hedgewood, Meadow and Moorcroft. As a part of the session at Oak Farm Clinic, children
from the autistic unit at Oak Farm School are treated or supervised. As the clinic facilities at Yiewsley
are not easily accessible to all the children in that area, the speech therapist visits some of the schools
to advise on treatment and management. Thus all maintained schools in the Borough have access to a
speech therapist at least once a week during term time.
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