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MENTAL HEALTH & SOCIAL WORK
SERVICES
Introductory
The daily supervision of these services is delegated to a Senior
Medical Officer, who is assisted in the mental health aspects by a
Prinicipal Mental Welfare Officer, and in the other social work aspects
by a Senior Social Worker.
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
General
The Borough still has the use of beds in hospitals and out-patient
clinics associated with the former County Districts which now comprise
the London Borough of Merton, but there is no doubt that by
working as a unified London Borough greater facilities do, in fact,
become more generally available.
Residents of the Borough have a right to apply for the services
provided by their appropriate catchment hospital, but there are other
services available to residents of any part of the Borough, including
contact with specialised units either for mothers suffering from puerperal
schizophrenia, young male heroin addicts, or alcoholics, etc. In
addition, the close proximity of the Borough to leading Teaching
Hospitals, providing both out-patient and in-patient facilities, extends
the field of operation to cover many kinds of help. It is, however,
unfortunate that with the formation of the new London Boroughs
some rationalisation of hospital catchment areas was not effected. There
are three catchment areas in the Borough, and as a result, it is not
always possible to know readily the details of facilities provided by
the Regional Hospital Boards within or without the Borough.
Staff
At 31st December, 1967, the staff position was:—
1 Principal Mental Welfare Officer.
1 Deputy Principal Mental Welfare Officer.
5 Mental Welfare Officers (including one Psychiatric Social
Worker).
1 Mental Health Social Worker.
1 Part-time Mental Health Social Worker.
1 Trainee Mental Welfare Officer.
Dr. R. K. Freudenberg, Physician-Superintendent of Netherne
Hospital, continues to act as part-time Consultant Psychiatrist to
advise the Authority on aspects of the Mental Health Services.
In April a Trainee Mental Welfare Officer was appointed and it
was interesting to note that this post attracted the attention of a
considerable number of applicants, whereas some advertisements for
qualified Social Workers failed to attract any owing, presumably, to
the increased demand for their services. It would seem, therefore, that
the future number of Social Workers available will largely depend
upon the number of trainee posts made available in the next few years.
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