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liaison is maintained with the two Cheshire Foundation Homes in the
district, and in addition to giving supervision to the Merton cases in
residence there, the Authority has, when requested to do so, undertaken
supervision of patients from other Authorities accommodated
there.
SOCIAL WORK SECTION
Staff
At the end of the year the staff position was:—
1 Senior Social Worker.
1 Whole-time Social Worker.
3 Part-time Social Workers.
1 Part-time Social Worker (joint appointment with St. Helier
Hospital Management Committee).
One Social Worker, who had recently obtained the Certificate
in Social Work was appointed during the year, but apart from this,
the staffing position was rendered difficult by the Authority being
unable, when vacancies arose, to recruit qualified Social Workers.
General
The work of this Section is to provide a social work service:
(a) for the Chest Clinic at Cumberland Hospital, and
(b) for families with problems, referred by medical staff of the Department,
general practitioners, health visitors, Medical Social
Workers in hospitals in the catchment area, other Social Service
Departments (particularly the Welfare Services, Children's and Housing
Department) and other statutory and voluntary agencies.
In addition cases involving arrears of mortgage repayments precipitating
possible threat of eviction, are also referred to this Section
by the Authority, the Greater London Council and some private
Building Societies. Preliminary inquiries with families rendered
homeless, or with potentially homeless families are dealt with by
this Section, which is also responsible for casework on families provided
with temporary accommodation under Section 21 (1) (b) of the
National Assistance Act, 1948.
As a result of the wide extent of these varied activities and
shortage of staff, case loads are high and the extent of intensive case
work has to be carefully considered on a strict priority basis.
Social Casework
At the beginning of the year there were 345 active cases (i.e.,
cases requiring continued casework supervision) being dealt with by
the Section. During the year 550 new cases were referred to the
Section and on 31st December, 1968, there were 490 active cases
being dealt with.
The following tables give details of the cases referred during the
year, the sources of referral, and the disposal of cases. It should be
explained that some of the cases require an initial visit and assessment
of the situation with no continuing casework. Only those cases
found to require continuing casework are registered as active cases.
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