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the Educational Psychologist in her frequent contacts with the
schools, and the Courses she has given for teachers and lately an
attempt has been made to carry out this prevention work in an
experimental way, with the joint attendance of one Medical Officer
and the visiting Psychiatrist once a week at a special Clinic, to
which are referred mothers with a child under five years of age
with whom there is some difficulty."
Dr. C.Phillips, M.R.C.S. D.P.M visiting psychiatrist to
the Child Guidance Centres in Hornsey and Tottenham, reports
"During the past year, the work of the Child Guidance Centre
in both boroughs has suffered a setback because of the departure
of the Psychotherapists,so that treatment facilities for the school
children referred are depressingly inadequate. Since the latter
are, for the most part, only the grossly severe or abnormal cases
it may fairly be said that facilities for treatment and advice are
not proportional to the very high number of school children in
this Area who might otherwise benefit from it. The need for the
appointment of Psychotherapists to fill the gap is, of course,
well known to the Authorities, As yet I am unable to find a way
of conveying to the lay public, and particularly to those of them
who are parents or teachers, the extent depth and importance of
mental ill health among school children which goes unrecognised,
and extends from minor and easily remedied problems to the most
severe degree of disturbance.
This lack or recognition of the quantity and quality of mental
ill health seems to be based upon two major factors. The internal
factor is the general reluctance to notice illness in other people
of a type which is called psychological but which might equally
well be called mental or emotional because such recognition is
painful and disturbing to the observer it may stir up his own
anxieties and awareness of his own internal difficulties. This
is a problem which every one of us faces with varying degrees of
sensitivity and defensiveness or courage.
The second major factor is an external one in that the parents,
and from the point of view of our own Child Guidance Centres the
teachers, may not have sufficient knowledge or training to know
what is within the normal range of variation so far as personality
is concerned, and what constitutes a symptom, This would seem to
stem from lack of contact between teacher and psychiatrist, which
cannot be entirely made good by the efforts of the Educational
Psychologist.I have long felt that there needs to be more contact
between the teaching staff of various grades and the Child Guidance