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obtained. Members of the Society actively participated in many arrangements and wholeheartedly supported
the professional staff. I am particularly happy to report the very generous donation of £1,000 for additional
items for the Kingsbury Junior Training School. I am delighted that the children will benefit directly from the
outdoor sports equipment, and indirectly from the intercommunication system within the School, conveniently
linking the Principal with her teaching staff.
Mental Health Week — 9th-15th June, 1968
This was the third of a series of annual campaigns launched under the aegis of the National Association
for Mental Health to bring to public awareness and understanding the problems and needs connected
with mental disorder. The theme for 1968 was "Targets for Tomorrow" in the sectors of Research, Education,
Prevention, Treatment and Care. The programme in Brent during Mental Health Week was the most ambitious
to date, involving the closest co-operation in a great deal of hard work among the staffs of the Department,
Shenley and Leavesden Hospitals, the Child Guidance Service and members of the Brent Society for Mentally
Handicapped Children and Brent Samaritans. A special word of commendation is, I feel, due to my Officers
who had perforce to devote their time in the evenings and at the weekends to making preparations for the
Week in addition to carrying out their normal duties during the day. A comprehensive programme of events
included: —
(a) extensive press coverage in local newspapers;
(b) poster displays on over 100 sites in the Borough as well as in business premises;
(c) distribution of literature at all clinics and libraries;
(d) displays of photographs and exhibition materials in the foyers of the Town Hall and the A.B.C.
Cinema, Ealing Road, Wembley, (with the kind co-operation of the Manager, Mr. L. Leonard);
(e) a discussion and film session on aspects of mental health affecting teenagers, attended at the
Town Hall by 200 senior school pupils;
(f) a Forum on Mental Disorders, also at the Town Hall, when a panel comprising three hospital
psychiatrists, an educational psychologist and mental health staff were plied with questions from
an audience of 80 for close on three hours;
(g) an Open Day at Shenley Hospital, attended by over 100 Brent residents, coach transport being
provided for those requiring it;
(h) Open Days (to invited visitors) at Kilburn and Kingsbury Child Guidance Centres.
Mental Health Week was officially opened by His Worship the Mayor, Alderman R. W. Sharpe, J.P.,
in the foyer of the State Theatre, Kilburn, which was, by kind permission of the Manager, Mr. B. Weir, the venue
for the Week's major effort, a large Exhibition opened officially by well-known actress Miss Eunice Gayson.
This was a very comprehensive presentation of all that is being done in the Borough and its catchment area
psychiatric and subnormality hospitals for those suffering from mental disorder. Imaginative displays included
examples of sophisticated paintings done by Shenley Hospital patients, handicrafts and joinery from the same
source, a diversity of products from the industrial training workshops at Leavesden Hospital, a variety of craft
work by patients at Willesden Day Centre and a kaleidoscopic array of the work of the children at Neasden
Junior Training School. Also on show were numerous photographs and illustrations of various mental health
establishments and hospitals and the activities that take place within them, as well as a wide range of literature
and publications.
Whilst it is not possible to measure the impact of large scale educational efforts such as Mental Health
Week either at national or local levels, and despite some cynical murmurs about preaching to the converted,
the fact remains that these are the means, together with others that greater effort and more money will bring
into play, by which public apathy, ignorance and fear will by constant attack be ultimately dispelled.