View report page

72
during the year:-
Mrs. Handja, Child Psychotherapist left us after a number of years
and we were sorry to lose her services, especially with the more severely
disturbed children. Dr. Doron, Child Psychotherapist fortunately arrived
to take her place soon after and we were fortunate too in being able to
appoint an additional P.S.W. Miss Ogden to start work with us on the
1st January, 1969.
The Clinic was one of the first to be established in the London area
after the war. Now in its twenty-first year, it is probably the largest and
busiest Clinic in Greater London. We have a total staff of nineteen full
time or part time. Increased size has meant taking a new look at our
organisation and structure so as to use our resources to the full and
provide an optimum service to the children of Redbridge. We have been
rethinking our role within the community as well as our professional
roles within the Clinic. Our links with the Mental Health Services in the
borough have been strengthened by Miss Boyd's new appointment in
which she combines her work within the Clinic with responsibilities for
the mental health social work service for children in the community.
Miss Ogden, a P.S.W. who joined us on 1st January, 1969 will have a
similar combined role, Dr. Doron, one of our psychotherapists, is working
for one session a week in the classes for maladjusted children
where he sees children singly or in small groups. Mr. Bushong's therapeutic
groups, now four in number, are held in the Clinic and continue to
flourish. Our emphasis this year has therefore been on developing group
work and on extending our services into the community. Adapting to new
ideas and meeting new needs is often strenuous but always immensely
worth while.
School
Psychological
Service
For the year's work during 1968, Miss S.V. Gascoyne, Miss C.H.
Watt and Mr. R. Azam, Educational Psychologists, report as follows:—
Redbridge children are fortunate that there are so many specialized
teaching units within the borough. In theory and to a large extent in
practice, children who are failing at any given time to profit fully from
education in normal school surroundings can be given extra very
specialized help on a permanent or temporary basis according to their
needs. Each unit has expanded from the single class, often started on
an experimental basis, to a group of classes as the need for each category
has become more apparent. It is almost an axiom that to start a