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18
Guardianship and Informal Foster Care.
During the year four guardianship cases were allowed to lapse. This is in accordance with the
policy of the Mental Health Act, 1959. There are now no such cases for which this local authority is responsible.
Informal foster care placement has continued as before. The Guardianship Society, Hove, have
maintained their very helpful work in finding private homes to foster our citizens. In spite of considerable
effort, it has not been possible to find private householders within this borough to take any mentally subnormal
or severely sub-normal foster cases during the current year. This appears to be a reflection on public
attitude to sub-normality.
The Hostel for Sub-normal Working Boys, 191, Willesden Lane.
This is a hostel for twelve sub-normal and severely sub-normal boys, all of whom are either in open
employment or attend a Training Centre. It is staffed by a matron with 15 hours help from her husband,
and an assistant matron (male).
Since its opening in the Spring of 1964, this staffed hostel has had a high occupancy rate and was
running smoothly by April 1st, 1965.
The matron, Mrs. Sutcliffe, reports: —
"With the new Authority came a change of emphasis on the type of residents admitted. Ability to
work in the community, whilst still important, was no longer the prime consideration.
We welcomed Dr. Koffman's suggestion that applicants for residence should be interviewed at the
hostel by herself and the matron, if possible with applicants' parents at the interview. This to be followed
by a medical on admittance. In this way a number of unsuitable cases were turned down and a much more
satisfactory standard of residents achieved.
Arrangements were made for particularly difficult cases to have specialist treatment at Leavesden
Hospital, one boy having been admitted to hospital on the advice of their specialist.
In June, Mr. Usher was appointed as assistant; since that time there has been a welcome improvement
in staff conditions. This has enabled more time to be given to residents' leisure activities, i.e. handicrafts,
gardening and elementary P.T. to give a measure of physical improvement to residents whose normal
inclinations were completely sedentary.
During the year, six boys have left the hostel. Two of these were welcomed back by parents who
evidently had a change of heart. Two were delinquents who agreed to come here rather than remand homes,
and who left when they thought that "the heat was off". One boy was discharged to Leavesden Hospital. The
last boy was a confirmed wanderer ; his stay here was the longest of his career."
Neasden Junior Training School.
Mentally handicapped children that have been assessed as unsuitable for education at any of the
schools within the Education Act, 1944, are the responsibility of the Department. Their education and training
takes place at the Neasden Junior Training School. All these children are defined as "severely sub-normal".
Within this category, ability varies considerably: at the top of the scale some children are able to learn the
rudiments of the "three R's", while at the lowest part of the scale children, particularly those with multiple
handicaps, can hardly be trained at all. These latter are cared for within the special care unit of the Neasden
Junior Training School, where staff trained in nursing skills, rather than teachers, look after them. Arrangements
are made for their conveyance by coaches to and from the school.
This school has 78 places, 12 of which are allocated to the special care unit. Unfortunately, this is not
nearly enough for the number of cases resident in this borough. A few children are allocated places at the training
schools of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow, but many are on the waiting
list, particularly for the special care unit.
The staff consists of one supervisor, five assistant supervisors, four general duties attendants, a cook
and a part-time cleaner. Although the supervisor and assistant supervisors' duties are those of specialised
teachers, their own training differs from those that teach within the educational system in that they do not
attend teachers' training colleges, but usually a course at the Chiswick Polytechnic arranged by the National
Association for Mental Health. This is an unhappy state of affairs, as in consequence of this type of training,
the salary structure in no way approaches that of qualified teachers, yet the staff's duties are mostly identical
with that of teachers in certain special schools and units. Recruiting is thus a difficult problem, as it is only
the exceptional person who will embark on a career which will give such poor financial reward.
Happily, the present staff are devoted to their work and appear to be well settled. They are supported
by twice weekly attendance of a speech therapist. In addition a psysiotherapist attends weekly to
deal with spastic children in the special care unit.
Once a term an eye specialist attends. It has been found that the incidence of eye defects of mentally
severely sub-normal people is much higher than that for the rest of the population. Therefore, specialist
attention to any likely defects of vision at frequent intervals is very important.
Dr. Peter A. Gardiner, Research Fellow in Ophthalmology, continued with his survey of visual defects
in mentally handicapped children, which he had begun some time ago, and issued a preliminary report, in
which he concludes the following: —
"The results of the report show that there is a much higher incidence of visual defect amongst
mongols than amongst other mentally handicapped children. In round figures 75% of the mongols and 30%
of the others had bilateral defective visual acuity sufficiently severe to make the provision of glasses a serious
consideration. The actual number possessing glasses was 3, and 21 children were ordered them. Of these
21, 11 wore then constantly and happily, and 3 refused to wear them, and in 7 it is too early to assess their
acceptance, but my opinion is that about 75% of these children will accept glasses.