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6
badly need however, a break during which the children are off their hands
The Lodge at the Disinfecting Station at Millfields became vacant and although
from outside there never was a less likely looking place, it was decided to
adapt it to provide accommodation for 20 children between 5 and 16 years, who
were severely mentally, and often physically handicapped. The result has been,
if one might say it, a brilliant success. The children have benefited by the
opportunity of being taken out from a limited environment, mixing with other
children and receiving training from the staff. Their parents have found them
easier to manage, and in one or two cases, it has been possible to transfer
them to the main training centre. The success of the centre has owed much to
the staff we were able to appoint, but it has also been helped by the enthusiasm
that the Committee has shown in giving us all that we have asked for. In
particular I would like to thank the Borough Engineer for the thought and
enthusiasm that officers of his Department have always displayed in doing all
they could to help us in our often difficult demands for this Special Unit.
To the best of my knowledge it was the first of its particular kind to be set
up in London.
The other mental health services continued, in the main, as usual
throughout the year, but plans were in being to adapt part of the Ickburgh
Road Centre as a Special Care Unit for children under five. There were also
plans to move the day centre for patients being rehabilitated from mental
illness, from somewhat uncomfortable situation in the basement of Shoreditch
Health Centre, to the premises previously occupied by the training centre at
Thurtle Road, in shoreditch.
During the year the department took two important steps forward in the
field of preventive medicine. Although cervical cytology had been carried
out for some little time at Hackney Hospital, laboratory facilities had not
allowed the establishment of clinics independent of the hospital. The Health
Committee readily agreed that cytology clinics should be opened as soon as
laboratory facilities could be made available to us. With the kind co-operation
of Mr. Manning, the Secretary of the Hackney and Queen Elizabeth Group Hospital
Management Committee, and Dr. Morgan, the pathologist at Hackney Hospital,
these facilities were made available during 1966. The department immediately
opened a cytology clinic at the Richmond Road Centre, for Hackney women who
wished to take advantage of the facilities. By the end of the year the clinic
was running well and it was hoped to open a further clinic in the North of the
Borough early in 1967. During 1966 also, the Health Committee agreed that
vaccination against measles should be implemented in this Borough. Division
4 of the former London County Council had taken part in the preliminary trials
for this vaccine and had helped to demonstrate that it could be a valuable
measure. Vaccination is not offered universally as it is for diphtheria and
poliomyelitis, but is available to any child where it might be required for
special reasons. Actual vaccination had, however, not commenced by the end
of the year.
During the year the Council continued the valuable social work of family
planning. It has contributed to this both directly through the department,
and by grants towards the work of the Family Planning Association. The
department itself has been somewhat shackled by legislation, and the Family
Planning Association has also been hampered, although to a lesser extent. The
Committee has wished to go forward and provide a more universal service where
this is desired, both to the married and unmarried, and to make advice available
to the younger section of the community and at the end of the year it was
hoped that 1967 would see the introduction of new enabling legislation.
The department was severely inconvenienced during 1966 by the delay in
completion of the alterations and adaptations to the Sun Babies Day Nursery.
This work had been planned by the London County Council, but was not commenced
until 1965. At some stage it became necessary to make arrangements for