View report page

Retarded speech and language 17
Dysarthria and hearing loss 34
Dysphasia 11
Multiple congenital deformities 3
Spina bifida 19
Stammer 2
It was decided that the B.B.C. Film on sex education
"Growing Up" should be shown to the parents before being
shown to the children, and the parents were invited to an
evening meeting when the film was shown. Great interest
was expressed and no parent refused to allow their children
to see the film, which was later shown to groups of children
in the school.
There were many visitors from different parts of the
country including members of the medical and teaching
profession and administrators interested in setting up
similar projects.
Child Guidance Clinic
I am grateful to Dr. P. Calwell MB BS DPM for submitting
the following report:
1971 saw the Clinic settled down in our new building,
and appreciative of the opportunity to have sufficient
accommodation, including a Conference room, for all the
Clinic staff. The teamwork approach is greatly facilitated
by having adequate accommodation.
We were sorry that Mrs. Molloy, who had been with us
since 1966, left us in October, and that it was not possible
to replace her in the last three months of the year. In a
similar way there was a delay before Miss Birkett joined us
in May, which has the unfortunate effect of causing delays
for those who have been referred to us for urgent help.
The fact that we did not have the full complement of
psychiatric social workers for several months had the
inevitable effect of reducing the volume of work done.
In a similar way there was a six month delay between Mrs.
Oxford leaving us in March, and Mrs. Kullock replacing her
as psychotherapist in October. As there is such a shortage
of psychotherapists we are always pleased to have
experienced applicants. Despite these problems continuity
has been maintained to enable regular work to continue
with families over a prolonged period when necessary.
Seminars continued on a weekly basis with the Social
Services Department, and it is most useful that we can keep
in touch in this way with the new Department. It was
clearly a major upheaval involving different work being
undertaken by all the members of the new teams. It was
more than ever clear that there was a variety of experience
and sophistication, and that an opportunity to discuss some
cases in detail provoked valuable discussions on how
exceedingly difficult problems could be approached.
We have been concerned as always about the lack of
provision for certain children who are failing to cope in the
normal schools. We have still only one Day Maladjusted
School in the Hounslow area, which only takes a certain
proportion of the children requiring special day school
education. One difficulty has been that the fragile child
who is just able to cope in the small community of the
junior schools often fails to survive the transition to the
large senior school. Such children do not necessarily
require special education, but do greatly benefit from
being part of a small community. Often these children tend
to under-function educationally and so benefit from special
help provided by School Counsellors or Remedial
departments.
Educational
(a) Students Two Social Work students were supervised,
one by Mrs. Lees (Reading University) and one by Miss
Birkett (Chiswick Polytechnic). We feel we should take
these students from time to time, although they involve
more work for the Psychiatric Social Workers doing the
supervision, a Child Guidance Clinic gives them greater
opportunities for understanding at some depth the nature
of case work with disturbed parents.
(b) Lectures/Talks A number of talks involving general
discussion were given by Mrs. Lees to the following groups:
Social Work Students (Chiswick Polytechnic)
Health Visitor Students
Matron Housekeepers (Isleworth Polytechnic)
Student Teachers from Borough Road Training College
Play Group Supervisors
Probation Officers
and to a group of Social Workers and Health Visitors on a
Course organised by the London Boroughs Training
Committee (on the prevention of Mental Illness). We try
not to turn down any of these invitations as these groups
know otherwise little or nothing about the Child Guidance
Service, and have many misconceptions.
Meetings of Teachers and Social Workers
These meetings continue on a termly basis and the
Educational Psychologists and Psychiatric Social Workers
attend when possible. Mrs. Lees has been Secretary to the
group. It is hoped that next year this educational work can
be shared also with the new Psychiatric Social Workers.
Analysis of cases referred to child guidance clinic 1971
Referrals 1971 172
Diagnosed by Psychiatrist 105
New Cases seen by Psychiatric Social Workers 69
Number of Families helped by Psychiatric Social
Workers 176
Total attendances to see Psychiatric Social Workers
(parents) 1,427
Total attendances to see Psychiatrist
(parents and/or Children) 429
Number of cases treated by Psychotherapist 35
Total attendances to see Psychotherapist 716
Waiting List for P.S.W. at 31.12.71 48
Waiting List for Psychiatrist at 31.12.71 (i.e. cases
prepared by P.S.W., S.S.D., etc.) 12
Analysis of Referrals
Education Department 54
Health Department 44
Parents 33
Social Services Department 17
General Practitioners 10
41