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mainly dealing with school children, was asked to work with
medical officers at infant welfare clinics, and help them to
advise mothers of children under five years of age.
It is generally understood that the approach of the "doctor"
in the welfare clinic to problems of the mother is direct and
authoritative, The mother brings her problem and the doctor supplies
an answer on the spot. This is not the approach of the
psychiatrist, He listens to the mother and tries to get her to
solve her difficulties for herself.
This method may be quite new to the "doctor" trained in
preventive medicine, and be very difficult to apply. It is also
very time-consuming, consequently fewer children are seen and
results difficult to gauge.
If we could recognise at an early stage the problem of
behaviour which the children are not going "to grow out of", then
we could concentrate on those parents who are unconsciously making
their children into problems. But it will only be with the help
of the skilled psychiatrist that we can begin to deal with this.
Play Group in Park Lane Day Nursery
As an ancillary to helping the disturbed parent and child,
we have begun a play group at the Park Lane Day Nursery. Seven
children have been referred for behaviour problems.
The person in charge of this small group needs special
qualifications and experience in handling such children and
especially the parents,
Daily Guardian Scheme
The number of children minded by the day under this scheme
has fallen slightly during the year. Those minded by this method
are children under school age (whose mothers are working) who do
not qualify for admission to a day nursery and for whom other
satisfactory arrangements for minding cannot be made.
The success of the scheme depends on the satisfactory selection
of women who are prepared to undertake daily minding and keep
the rules, the placing of a child in a home of a type similar to
its own and one that is within reasonable distance of the child's
home or the mother's workplace. The approval before and sub
sequent supervision of the child after placing is undertaken by
the health visitor for the district on which the guardian resides.