Child Guidance Council
MENTAL HEALTH 81 News and Notes
At the meeting of the Council held on May 27th, papers were read by Mrs. E. M. Henshaw and Miss H. E. Howarth on their work amongst children under war conditions. The meeting was well attended and both papers provoked considerable interest and discussion. They will be published in the October number of the Journal.
Appointments. It is satisfactory to record that Miss Guthrie and Miss Reeves have been appointed permanently to the staff of the clinics to which their services were loaned by the Council, Miss Guthrie to the North-East Lancashire Clinic and Miss Reeves to the Barnsley Clinic. In the case of the latter, the Council paid part of the salary of the psychiatric social worker for the first three months, the Clinic paying the balance and assuming full financial responsibility at the end of the period.
Establishment of Clinics. Oldham and Rochdale have passed a scheme for a joint clinic. The Education Authorities will pay the salaries of psychiatrist and educational psychologist. The Child Guidance Council will lend a psychiatric social worker for the first six months. Preston Education Committee has also decided to establish a full team clinic. York Education Committee has been given the loan of an educational psychologist for three months. Mrs. Bathurst began work there in May.
The continued increase in juvenile delinquency is arousing more and more I interest in the possibilities of child guidance as a preventive and remedial measure, and it is mainly to this factor that the continued enquiries received by the Council are due. A group of Education Authorities has recently held a Conference on the question of setting up a child guidance clinic to which the Council was asked to send a delegate. Miss Ruth Thomas kindly consented to attend the meeting to describe the functions of a clinic and to answer any questions that might arise.
Training. The Council has allocated the sum of ?300 to the Committee estab- lished jointly with the Central Association for Mental Welfare for the training of educational psychologists who wish to gain experience in child guidance clinics. The Committee will award bursaries for this purpose.
Publications. The 1940 Supplement to the Bibliography of Child Psychology has just been published and may be obtained from the Council’s offices (23 Queen Square, Bath), price 2d., postage Id.
Leaflets dealing in simple language with children’s behaviour problems such as lying, stealing, truanting, will be available in a short time and will be distributed free of cost to mental health workers who wish to make use of them. They are intended chiefly for parents and teachers.
Conference on Children’s Problems in Wartime. A one-day ? Conference on children’s problems in wartime will be held in London at B.M.A. House, on August 16th. This will be open to formally qualified members of child guidance clinic staffs, to members of such staffs approved by the psychiatrist in charge and to qualified workers in the child guidance auxiliary service. Enquiries should be addressed to the Medical Director, Child Guidance Council, 23 Queen Square, Bath.
Evacuation of Children under Five. In view of the intense air bombardment experienced in certain cities, the Council have modified their attitude towards the evacuation of children under five without their mothers and have passed the following resolution:
” Whilst recognizing the serious psychological problems occasioned by the separation of children under five from their mothers, the Child Guidance Council is of opinion that such children should be evacuated from badly bombed areas in units, e.g. nursery schools, nursery centres. They should not, however, be billeted individually with foster parents.”
This resolution was subsequently adopted by the Mental Health Emergency Com- mittee with the addition of the following rider : “unless special care is given to the selection of foster parents and the supervision of the children placed on the lines of the Foster-Homes Register.” to which the Child Guidance Council sees no objection provided great care is taken in selection and supervision of the foster homes by a fully trained mental health worker.
Reports from Clinics. Birmingham Child Guidance Clinic reports an increase in the number of cases referred, despite evacuation and transport difficulties. Although there has been no increase of serious and lasting maladjustments, it has been noticed that there is an increase in excitability and aggressive behaviour following air raids; also diminished powers of memory and concentration observed by mental tests, a result to be expected.
From the experience of this clinic it seems likely that there will be a considerable number of children of 7 plus, backward in lessons because they have missed a great deal of school and suffering emotionally owing to anxiety consequent on retardation. It is suggested that coaching centres might be established for these children who cannot always be helped in school.
The policy of boarding out children on farms under the supervision of the Society in Aid of Nervous Children is being pursued successfully, as is indicated by the gratifying results observed in the children sent and in the continued wellbeing of these children on their return.
Dundee Child Guidance Clinic notes that the war has caused some increase in Juvenile Delinquency since September, 1939, particularly sexual ‘offences and truancy. Anxiety symptoms have been characteristic of a number of cases referred since the outbreak of war, but although some of them have been a reflection of the return of symptoms in the cases of fathers who suffered from shell-shock during the last war, the majority have been caused by conditions which existed previous to the war, but have been exaggerated by present circumstances.
Liverpool Child Guidance Clinic reports that few cases have been referred as a direct result of air raids and considers that the break-up of the family unit has produced the most marked effect, together with the dislocation of the school services.
But examination has shown that in the majority of cases the underlying causes of difficulties were already in existence and had produced unconscious insecurity. This, under the extra strain of conditions imposed by war, showed itself in emotional and social maladjustments.
Juvenile Delinquency and Intelligence
The Bristol Child Guidance Clinic has recently completed an enquiry into the cases of 168 juvenile offenders referred by magistrates and probation officers during the past two years, and we are indebted to the Acting Medical Director, Dr Frank Bodman, for permission to quote from his report.
The chief findings have been summarized as follows:
(1) There has been a 50 per cent, increase in juvenile delinquency in Bristol since the war. (2) The greatest increase comes from the class of child who is very dull or a borderline defective (I.Q. 70-85). (3) Half the cases referred by the Court to the Child Guidance Clinic have been either very dull or high grade defectives (I.Q. 55-85). (4) Approved Schools dislike admitting this type of child, and rightly so, as these very dull children cannot profit from the training. (5) Colonies and institutions for defectives will not accept this type, as they are not low enough in intelligence to be certifiable under the Mental Deficiency Acts. (6) The remaining alternative?probation?is unsatisfactory, as the parents of these children are generally of low intelligence themselves and fail to co-operate with the Probation Officer. (7) Twice as many offences are committed in the winter months as in the summer. (8) In more than a third of the cases referred, the home has been broken not only by the usual pre-war causes of death or legal separation, but also by the absence of the father on service or war work, and sometimes of the mother too. (9) Of more than 40 defective children brought before the Court, only one had attended a Special School.
It is pointed out that the 52 per cent, of high grade defective or dull and backward children referred is a very high proportion when it is realized that the normal school population only contains 2 per cent, of this group. For a few who are actually defective, places are available in the Special Schools, but for the rest, no satisfactory provision exists and it is submitted that there is an urgent need for residential schools for these children, as well as for approved schools with curricula specially adapted to their limitations.
” To try and train either the mind or character of these abnormally dull children in their own homes or in the ordinary schools it is pointed out, ” is rather like trying to teach pigs to fly, or using bows and arrows in modern warfare “, and yet with specialized training they can become an asset to the community.
Mental Health Emergency Committee
The First Report of the Committee has now been published and can be obtained on application to 24 Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.I.
The great value of the activities of the Committee’s Regional Representatives in the areas to which they are attached, has become more apparent as time goes on, and an appointment of a fifth Representative to work in Region 3 (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland) is shortly to take effect. To each Representative there is, moreover, to be attached a psychiatric social worker who will be able to help in dealing with individual cases and whose services can be loaned to any part of the Region concerned where special need exists, to demonstrate the value of the type of assistance which can be given.
During the past three months, the loan of a worker has been made to a new district?Nidderdale and adjacent areas?and it is hoped that a permanent appoint- ment by the Ministry of Health will follow.
After the severe raids on Plymouth, the Committee, at the request of the Local Authorities concerned, sent their Regional Representative to the area. She success- fully organized a Parents’ Advice Bureau to form a link between the children evacuated from Plymouth and the billets to which they had been assigned, as experience has proved that the existence of such a Bureau can do much to prevent the children’s precipitate return. For the time being, this work is being carried on by another worker loaned by the Committee, but it is hoped that in due course a permanent appointment will be made.
The Committee has been devoting close consideration to the problem of the care of children under five, and it has been decided to submit to the Government Departments concerned a scheme offering the services of a trained worker for an experimental period for the purpose of visiting and advising the staffs of Nursery Centres on the general handling of children as well as on specific problems. The Committee wish to emphasize the importance of these early years not only from the point of view of physical health but for the building of character and for ensuring sound mental and emotional development. A Sub-Committee has therefore been formed, with Miss Ruth Thomas (the C.A.M.W’s Educational Psychologist) as Secretary, to consider what contribution can be made towards a solution of the problems involved, in co-operation with other groups concerned. A Resolution on the subject of the evacuation of unaccompanied children under five, has been con- sidered by the Committee in the form presented to it by the Child Guidance Council, who expressed the opinion that such children should be evacuated in units, e.g. nursery schools or centres, and not be individually billetted. Whilst agreeing that ordinary billeting was unsuitable for young children, the Committee felt that for a certain number of them, satisfactory provision could be made by the selection of carefully chosen foster-parents and the provision of skilled supervision on the lines of the methods employed in boarding-out backward and difficult children under the Joint Register of Foster-Homes. An amendment to the Resolution was therefore passed, the principle of which was subsequently accepted by the Child Guidance Council (see page 82).
The British War Relief Society of the United States has recently sent a large sum of money to this country, part of which has been allocated for the provision of additional equipment for recreational facilities in Hostels for Difficult Children. In making grants to Hostels for this purpose, the Mental Health Emergency Com- mittee has been invited to co-operate. It has been decided that a proportion of the money available shall be set aside for the thorough equipment of a limited number of Hostels where Child Guidance facilities are available. Such Hostels have been visited by officers of the Committee, and eight applications for sums varying from ?70 to ?140 have been drawn up and accepted by the committee responsible for the Fund.
Conference of Mental Health Emergency Workers
On June 27th, a Conference of workers engaged in Mental Health Emergency activities was held by the Committee, in London.
Mrs. Montagu Norman took the chair, and forty-two people were present; of these, eighteen were members of the Committee’s staff or of the staffs of its constituent bodies, ten were holders of Ministry of Health appointments for work amongst evacuees, and four were Welfare Workers attached to the Ministry. The morning session was devoted to discussion on the necessity of a liaison welfare service between workers in Rest Centres and Shelters and those in Reception Areas, and between the parents of evacuated children and workers in the areas in which they are billeted. Practical experiments in this direction were described by workers engaged in them, and the urgent need for such schemes, carried on in close co-operation with all types of social workers concerned, was unanimously accepted.
After lunch, kindly provided by the Chairman, a discussion took place on Hostels for Difficult Children. Various views were put forward on certain aspects of management and organization, but the opinion was unanimously expressed that no Hostel should take more than thirty children, twenty being considered a -still better number, and that adequate play and recreational facilities should be provided. Another point emerging from the Conference, to which we would draw the attention of readers, is considered to be of urgent importance, viz. the need for establishing the closest possible co-operation between psychiatric social workers and mental welfare workers and the many new special Welfare Officers who are being appointed by the Ministry of Health as well as by Local Authorities.
Central Association for Mental Welfare The prolonged search for suitable premises for the proposed Hostel for Agricul- tural Workers continues. Meanwhile the Association’s Guardianship Officer has visited a number of Certified Institutions and twenty-five to thirty young men have been referred to her by the various Medical Superintendents as patients likely to do well on Licence, in farm work.
A Course for Teachers of Retarded Children will be held at St. Luke’s College, Exeter, from August 29th to September 12th, 1941, designed specially to meet the needs of teachers whose work has been disorganized by evacuation and other wartime conditions. The subjects to be dealt with will be:
(1) The organization into teaching units of children of unknown attainments by standard tests of attainment. (2) Modifications of the curriculum designed to meet new conditions. (3) The difficult, delinquent or otherwise maladjusted child as a problem at home, in school or in billet. There will also be classes in handicrafts, dramatic art and mime, percussion band playing and musical appreciation with such visits of observation as it is possible to arrange under present conditions. The Course will be residential and the total inclusive fee will be ?10 10s. Further information can be obtained on application to the C.A.M.W.
Lectures to teachers in Shropshire have been given by the Association’s Educa- tional Psychologist, Miss Ruth Thomas, who has also lectured to Teacher Mid wives at the College of Nursing and to Midwives in Cambridgeshire. Miss Thomas addressed the Annual Meeting of the Staffordshire Mental Welfare Association, and through the instrumentality of that Association had the opportunity of speaking to groups of teachers and others in the area.
In 1939, it may be remembered, a Report was drawn up by a representative Committee convened by the Association, on the Education and Notification of Defective Children, making certain recommendations designed to extend the present inadequate educational facilities for such children, and to ensure the provision of special care for them on leaving school. The presentation of the Report to the Board of Education and the Board of Control was postponed owing to the war, but it has now been decided to forward it together with a note of the organizations accepting its recommendations in entirety and of those who found themselves able to accept only some of them, stating the points on which full agreement could not be reached.
In conjunction with the Child Guidance Council and the National Council for Mental Hygiene, a Regional Scheme for Mental Health Education in rural areas has been forwarded to the Central Council for Health Education in accordance with the terms of its competition for an award of ?250. The scheme submitted aims at organizing a campaign of Mental Health Education in a specific area comprising several small urban and rural districts in which no propaganda of the kind has so far been undertaken, and provision is made for lectures and talks on various aspects of Mental Health to be given through local organizations holding regular meetings- It is with profound regret that the Association records the loss of one of its former Educational Psychologists, Phyllis Noella Hamilton (nee Pye), who died in July following the birth of her first baby. Mrs. Hamilton had a personality which quickly won the affection of those with whom she came into contact, and her death, under such tragic circumstances, is felt as a personal sorrow by every member of the staff. The many teachers and other students at C.A.M.W. Courses who used to delight in her lectures and classes will, we know, share this sense of loss. The National Council for Mental Hygiene
The Council, which has given considerable attention to the question of mental testing in the Services with a view to eliminating the mentally unfit and of making the best possible use of the abilities of recruits, welcomes the steps in this direction which it is understood are now being taken by the Services authorities. In a letter from the Council on this subject recently published in The Times, reference was made to wasted abilities in the Army owing to lack of consideration of ability in grading men, and the suggestion was put forward that the use of vocational and other tests should be extended to the Women’s Services, and should also be utilized in the conscription of labour both for munitions and agriculture, and in certain civil departments under Government control.
There has been a keen demand for the revised pamphlets recently published by the Council which give guidance to those in charge of First Aid Posts, Air Raid Shelters, and Rest Centres in methods of dealing with cases of nervous and emotional disorder. Arrangements are being made to distribute the pamphlets extensively to responsible authorities throughout the country. These and other publications on wartime problems issued by the Council, as well as the syllabuses of special talks, are being used by the Committee on Military Mobilization of the American Psychiatric Association which is taking an active part in defence mobilization in the U.S.A. The Association expects to be entrusted with the instruction of the various categories of civilian defence personnel which may be instituted, and in this connection permis- sion has been asked to utilize the Council’s various publications.
Further talks to large groups of A.R.P. and First Aid workers have recently been given on behalf of the Council in the Lancashire area, and applications for repeat lectures are being received. By arrangement with the Sussex Rural Com- munity Council, Dr Edward Glover addressed a large audience at Lewes on June 20th at the Annual Meeting of the East Sussex Mental Welfare Association when he spoke on the psychological effects of war conditions on the civilian.
The Council’s Annual Report, covering the period January 1st, 1940, to March 31st, 1941, is now available and copies will gladly be supplied on application to the Secretary, 76-77 Chandos House, Palmer Street, London, S.W.I.
Lord Memorial Essay Prize Competition
Details are announced of the 1941 arrangements for this annual competition which is held under the auspices of the National Council for Mental Hygiene. The competition is open this year to certificated male and female mental nurses of the rank of staff, charge or chief charge, in mental hospitals in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. A prize of ?3 3s. and a medal is offered for the best essay submitted,and the title chosen is: “The Public require Tuition about the Modern Mental Hospital, its Aims and its Outlook: How can the Mental Nurse assist in this ? “
Essays are limited to approximately 2,000 words, and the latest date for the reception of these is October 31st, 1941. Further particulars may be had on applica- tion to The Secretary, The National Council for Mental Hygiene, 76-77 Chandos House, Palmer Street, London, S.W.I.
The Bravery of an M.D. Boy Scout.
Readers of Mental Health whose sphere of work lies amongst defectives, will be interested to know that a member of the Little Plumstead Colony Group of Scouts (Ronald Quadling) has been awarded the Cornwall Badge for endurance and courage in a severe illness.
The report, kindly provided by the Medical Superintendent of the Colony, records that on January 16th, 1941, the boy underwent an operation for acute mastoid disease. Lateral sinus infection followed, and on January 30th a second operation was performed. Between January 30th and February 25th, he had thirty rigors accompanied by intense pain, and he was also called upon to face the ordeal of extremely painful dressings of the extensive head wound. From none of these did he shrink, and his patience and endurance werQ so great that nurses and doctors were immensely impressed. To quote from the report:
” I did many of his dressings myself and made it a practice to watch them on other occasions when my duties allowed. We used to tell him before his dressings that he must be a good Scout and this was repeated before each rigor had fully developed. He always replied that he would try, and he gave a really exemplary display of courage and endurance.”
On February 25th, as collapse was impending, it was decided to give a blood trans- fusion, and from then onwards continuous progress was made.
The Medical Superintendent gives it as his considered opinion that if the boy had been without the sheet anchor of courage and self-reliance developed by scouting, he would not have lived. The award made to him has greatly stimulated scouting and guiding at the Colony, and it is hoped that other groups of handicapped Scouts and Guides will be equally encouraged.
Scottish Association for Mental Hygiene
The Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Association for Mental Hygiene was held in the Psychology Department of the University, Edinburgh, on June 7th, 1941, and was attended by a small but representative gathering. Sir W. W. McKechnie, President of the Association, who occupied the chair, referred to the work which had been undertaken by the Association during the year, stressing that despite the difficulties of the present times, contact was being maintained in most areas, while every effort was being made to retain as many as possible of the Associa- tion’s former activities. Reference was made to the fact that the Emergency
Committee had agreed to allow the services of the Secretary to be transferred to the General Board of Control for Scotland from time to time.
Professor Drever, Chairman of the Child Guidance Section, submitted a short report on the position of Child Guidance in Scotland, while a report on Scottish Child Guidance Clinics was submitted by Miss McCallum, Hon. Secretary.
Dr Harrowes, Chairman of the Mental Health Section, gave information regarding the work which had been undertaken during the year in connection with public instruction on the psychological aspects of civilian warfare, stating that public lectures had been delivered in most of the larger Scottish towns.
Dr Harrowes also stated that the Mental Health Section was concerned with the question of after-care of men who had been discharged from the Services on psycho-neurotic grounds, and in order to gain information on this subject mental specialists who were at present dealing with the problem in emergency and other hospitals had been invited to express their views, and to indicate in what way the Association might be of assistance in its solution. A discussion followed, and the matter was referred to the Emergency Committee for further investigation. It was agreed that contact should be maintained with the Central Association for Mental Welfare on this question.
Since the Annual Meeting, a special meeting has been arranged by the Mental Health Committee at which representatives of the R.A.F., British Legion, British Medical Association and Council of Social Services have been invited to be present to discuss possible methods of dealing with ex-service psycho-neurotics.
Meamvood Park Colony
On June 23rd, a new extension of this Colony provided by the Leeds Mental Health Services Committee, was formally opened by H.R.H. the Princess Royal. The Colony, the beginnings of which were made in 1921, was planned to accommodate ultimately 900 patients of all ages and grades. The first section of the scheme was completed in October 1932, when accommodation was made available for 431 patients, and with this recent extension a total of 841 beds has been reached. Association of Mental Health Workers The Annual Conference of the Association was held in London on Saturday, June 21st, and was well attended, although it was not possible for many members to come from long distances.
The Annual Meeting took place in the morning and in the afternoon there was a discussion on ” Social Changes due to the War and Wartime Legislation The opening address was given by Mr. H. E. Norman, Chairman of the British Federation of Social Workers.
As it was not possible, owing to shortness of time, to discuss the subject exhaus- tively, it was agreed that an effort should be made through the ” News Letter to arrive at some expression of opinion which could be sent to the British Federation to be collated with the findings of other constituent bodies.
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