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Holiday Centre for Mentally Handicapped Children.
Most parents find school holidays a trying time but parents of mentally handicapped children on
the whole find it harder still, particularly if their child is one of the very over-active types of mental
sub-normality.
The Council was therefore approached to support financially a scheme whereby at least some of
these children could be cared for in a play-group kind of situation for the summer holiday period 1967. It
is proposed to invite some two dozen children to spend a 4-week period at a pleasantly situated school daily.
A trained person is to be in charge and 4 untrained students are to be recruited to work under her supervision.
Schemes of this kind have been tried in a few other areas. Most of them were a great success but at
least one run by the parents' association was a complete failure—the scheme was abandoned due to lack of
parental support.
Admissions to Hospital.
Leavesden Hospital (Abbots Langley, nr. Watford. Herts.) continues to be the only hospital admitting
mentally sub-normal and severely sub-normal patients from this Borough. Admissions of patients have
remained at a level well below the need. The co-operation between the hospital and the Local Authority
however have improved to a most gratifying degree. The Senior Medical Officer's presence as an invited
observer at the Group Advisory Medical Committee meetings has made it possible for the hospital to appreciate
the community's great needs. In addition a consultant psychiatrist frequently sees selected patients
either at a suitable centre or in the Hostel for Sub-normal Working Boys, 191, Willesden Lane, N.W.6.
Expert advice is speedily forthcoming over the telephone should the need arise. An additional facet of close
co-operation has been the secondment of a male student nurse from the hospital to attend the new Special
Care Unit in Balnacraig Avenue, Neasden, daily for a three-monthly period at a time. This type of liaison
is advantageous to both sides: the nurse for the first time learns of the specific difficulties facing the staff
of such a community based unit in dealing with severely handicapped children on a day basis, i.e. where
sedation is kept at a minimum, and also helps our staff in the sheer physical handling difficulties of these
very trying cases. Male strength in restraining gently sudden unprovoked aggressive behaviour in a severely
disturbed male or female adolescent is of great value to the otherwise entirely female staff.
The excellent relationship with the hospital was further strengthened by being able to send Trainee
Mental Welfare Officers to Leavesden Hospital so that they would acquaint themselves at first hand with the
hospitalisation of sub-normals.
The etiology of certain types of subnormality still requires elucidation. With this in mind the
medical staff of Leavesden Hospital designed a research project which required my mental health staff's
close co-operation. This was happily accomplished and the result should prove of great interest to all.
Cases on Waiting List on 31.12.66
Urgent 38
Others 11
Total 49
As in previous years, economic use of hospital beds has made admission of short term care cases possible.
This again has enabled parents to have a holiday without the burden of their handicapped child and
also made possible the immediate admission of children whose mothers had fallen ill or were being confined.
Number of cases admitted to hospital for short
term care 43
Number of cases admitted elsewhere 6
Guardianship and Informal Foster Care.
There are still no cases under the guardianship of this Authority. The need for this procedure does
not appear to arise any more.
Informal foster care has continued as previously. The Guardianship Society, Hove, Sussex, has
continued to place our cases and admit them to their training centre. The efforts of my officers have succeeded
in finding one foster mother within this Borough but this one case is likely to remain the exception
to the rule that foster homes are very rarely found in this area, no doubt due to the public's suspicious
attitude towards the mentally disordered child.
Much of the administrative officer's efforts are directed towards finding suitable homes for cases
recommended for placement in informal foster care. I have come to the conclusion that it would well pay
this Authority to consider its own children's homes for severely sub-normal cases. This applies of course only
to children whose home environment has proved unsuitable be it either due to social factors or to the emotional
inability of the parents to come to terms with their misfortune. Hostel accommodation of the suggested kind
would enable our children to attend the new lunior Training Centre at Grove Park.
The Hostel for Sub-Normal Working Boys, 191 Willesden Lane.
Various changes have taken place in this establishment during the year under review. It caters
as before for mentally sub-normal and severely sub-normal working boys either in open employment or
attending a Training Centre.
In September the matron and her family left to take up a similar appointment in a very much larger
establishment for both sexes, opened by the London Borough of Hillingdon. It soon became evident that suitable
applicants for this post were not forthcoming. It was therefore proposed and later implemented that
the establishment should be changed and consequently the Assistant was appointed to the post of Superintendent.
Efforts were made to appoint a female assistant. Late in the year a lady was indeed so appointed
to this post. It remains to be seen whether she will be able to deal with boys of this kind as her previous
experience dealt with a somewhat younger age group.