News and Notes
Central Association for Mental Welfare
Thirty-nine applications were received for the Course in Mental Deficiency for Medical Practitioners held in Oxford from March 24th to April 4th, in co-operation with the University of London. Six students later withdrew, but thirty-three attended and were accommodated at Wadham College. This is the first time the Course has been a residential one, and great appreciation was expressed at the new arrangement.
The thanks of the Association are due to the Oxford Education Committee, and the Mental Deficiency Committee, who, despite wartime difficulties, provided the necessary facilities for the students’ practical testing work and for visits of observa- tion. The help, official and unofficial, of Miss Grace Rawlings, Educational Psychologist, who was generously lent by the Education Committee, is also gratefully acknowledged, as is that of Miss M. R. H. Buck, Senior Mental Health Visitor on the staff of the Public Health Department.
A series of six lectures on the Backward Child has been given by Miss Ruth Thomas, the Association’s full-time Educational Psychologist, to teachers in two centres in Herefordshire?Hereford and Leominster. Sixty teachers attended, in addition to Training College students. Miss Thomas has also given two lectures on ” Children’s Wartime Problems ” to conferences of teachers in Newcastle and Carlisle. Further lectures are in process of being given in the Cumberland area.
As there is ample evidence that teachers would welcome a Three Weeks’ Course, the possibilities of organizing this in a convenient centre, are being explored. It would be organized on the lines of the Courses previously held annually by the Association, but would be specially adapted to meet present emergency conditions.
The Council of the Association has recently approved a scheme for facilitating the provision of clinical experience for Educational Psychologists. The demand for psychological workers steadily increases, and there is great need for increasing the supply of trained candidates. Arrangements are being made for the establishment of a joint Committee, consisting of two members appointed by the C.A.M.W., and two by the Child Council, with Miss Fildes (a member of the Committees of both organizations) as Chairman.
Unfortunately, premises for the additional Emergency Home for low-grade defectives planned by the Association, have not yet been secured but search continues to be made.
With the increase of young married women in industrial work, the problem of defective children left in charge of ” minders ” is likely to arise, and the Association is drawing attention to the need for vigilance on the part of Mental Health workers and Voluntary Associations, so that where necessary, steps may be taken to provide adequate care. In view of the Government’s decision to recognize ” minders the question is all the more important.
Some difficulty has arisen with regard to the chargeability of defectives voluntarily evacuated to reception areas and then found to need institutional care, and an opinion from the Board of Control has been received by the Association, as follows: “As regards mental defectives coming within the jurisdiction of the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1919-38, the Board have been in communication with the County Councils Association and the Association of Municipal Corporations as a result of which both Associations are prepared to advise their constituent members to adopt the view that receiving authorities should not be expected to bear the cost of institutional maintenance in respect of mental defectives who are resident in their areas as a wartime expedient
Child Guidance Council
The Council’s Annual Report, just published, gives a list of 68 child guidance clinics, 56 in England and Wales, and 12 in Scotland. Four of those in England (two in Surrey and two in Hertfordshire) have been set up to deal with problems arising from the present emergency and are therefore listed as ” temporary ” clinics. The 52 permanent clinics are graded according to the classification approved by the Inter-Clinic Committee of the Council. That the proportion of Local Authority to voluntary clinics is gradually increasing is indicated by the following figures : in 1939, there were 17 Local Authority Clinics, 5 partly financed by Local Authorities, and 24 voluntary. In 1940, the figures were 22 Local Authority, 5 partly financed by Local Authorities, and 25 voluntary. The one new voluntary clinic is that at the London Hospital, which after functioning during most of the year has now been obliged to close, as have so many others in London, on account of the intensive air bombardment.
Clinics listed for the first time in the Report are those at Bradford, Maidenhead, Sunderland, N.E. Lancashire, and the London Hospital Clinic, all fully staffed, and ?ne held at the Francis Dixon Lodge (Leicester City Mental Hospital). Although this clinic has no educational psychologist on its own staff, children needing such a service are referred to the worker employed by the Leicester Education Committee. Similarly, children attending the Leicester Education Committee School Pyschological department and Clinic who are found to need treatment by a psychiatrist are referred to the Francis Dixon Lodge. Excellent co-operation is maintained and the result is that, to all intents and purposes, Leicester City is in the fortunate position of possessing two full team clinics.
The Council has succeeded in finding the necessary money to make good the award of two Fellowships in Psychology which have been awarded to Miss Bonniface and Miss Dunkerley who had been selected for training at the London Child Guidance Clinic prior to the outbreak of war but whose Fellowships had to be cancelled owing to the closing of the London Child Guidance Clinic. Training funds, usually allocated to the award of Fellowships in Psychiatry and Psychology, had to be Verted to the financing of a Child Guidance Training Centre?established in Cambridge during the first year of war and now transferred to Oxford where the two new Fellows are already at work.
The development of new child guidance centres proceeds apace. In Somerset ^r- Sessions Hodge undertakes psychiatric sessions at one end of the County and Dr Grace Calver will give psychiatric help at the other end for the time being. Salford Education Committee has been given the loan of Mrs. Henshaw’s services for two sessions a week for an experimental period of three months and enquiries are being dealt with from eight other areas.
The Council has recently considered its policy with regard to the various types of service which are being inaugurated in different parts of the country and which do not always reach the standard required for inclusion in the Council’s ” recognized ” list. Clinics in Group I, it should be remembered, rank for a 50 per cent, grant by the Board of Education. In some places at present, a psychiatric social worker is working among evacuated children, in others an educational psychologist. The work is in itself excellent but there is a danger, which workers will themselves be the first to realize, of getting away from the idea of the clinical unit?psychiatrist, psychologist and psychiatric social worker. It has therefore been decided to describe child guidance work carried out apart from an established clinic service as a Child Guidance Auxiliary Service. At the same time, it has been decided that clinics employ- ing a full team but appointing the educational psychologist as director, instead of the psychiatrist, should be placed in Group II (b) of the Council’s list of recognized clinics. Further, despite the shortage of trained personnel, it has been agreed not to lower the standard of recognized qualifications for clinic staffs.
National Council for Mental Hygiene
A large number of lectures has recently been given by the Council’s speakers to A.R.P. personnel and the Casualty Services in Lancashire on practical methods of dealing with cases of nervous manifestations under air raid conditions. As a result of the efforts of Miss Martland, the Regional Representative of the Mental Health Emergency Committee, the County Medical Officer of Health circularized all the local authorities concerned notifying them of the Council’s offer to provide such lectures. The response was immediate and overwhelming and between 30 to 40 towns have already been visited by the lecturers. In many cases adjoining districts combined for a joint meeting thus facilitating the arrangements. Appreciative letters have been received expressing thanks for the valuable information and help given to volunteers on the important subject of maintaining the stability of the civilian in these times of stress and difficulty.
Providing funds are available it is hoped that similar arrangements can be made in the near future for other areas.
By permission of the Home Office, one of the Council’s speakers recently spent a week in the Isle of Man lecturing on mental health subjects at the Internment Camps. The lectures were enthusiastically received by the internees who were happily impressed and grateful for the help given them. Similar lectures have also been given at other Internment Camps in the country.
A revised edition of the Council’s pamphlets for the guidance of A.R.P. workers, those in charge of First Aid Posts and Rest Centres, has recently been published by the Council, and copies may be obtained on application to the Secretary, 76-77 Chandos House, Palmer Street, S.W.I. In addition to providing valuable A information on methods of dealing with cases of nervous manifestations, the pamphlets contain a list of clinics for functional nervous disorder to which persons in need of treatment can be referred.
Mental Health Emergency Committee
As the war on the home front develops, the work of the Committee rapidly increases and the need for expert and understanding help for dealing with mental health problems amongst evacuated children and the victims of bombing is becoming generally recognized.
During the last three months, the Committee has loaned workers to Bristol, Nidderdale, Maidenhead, and Basingstoke, and in Warwickshire their worker continues to find billets for special cases from the London area, and has also helped m Coventry after its recent raids.
The work done in Hampshire is particularly interesting as the worker established friendly relations with the county officials and with a number of Billeting Officers in various parts of the area, as a result of which a joint application was successfully made to the Ministry of Health for a grant to cover the expenses of a permanent Mental Health worker for the whole county of Southampton. The Committee now has full-time Regional Representatives in the following areas: Region 2 (East and West Ridings) .. Miss Margaret Cullen {seconded by the Bradford Education Committee). Region 6 (Reading, Oxon, Berks, Bucks, Hants, Surrey) .. Miss Findlay (transferred from Region 2). Region 7 (Glos, Wilts, Dorset, Somer- set, Devon, and Cornwall) .. Miss Howarth.
In Region 10 (Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumberland and Westmorland), Miss Martland continues her arduous work as Regional Representative and the Committee’s worker who is helping her in Lancashire (Miss Muir) has been appointed part-time Social Worker at the Manchester Royal Infirmary’s Psychiatric Clinic. In all the Regions concerned, the work is developing and new opportunities for Service are presenting themselves.
It has been ascertained that where there is a Hostel for Difficult Children amongst the evacuee population, the Board of Education are prepared to approve the admission a local child, under Section 80 of the Education Act, 1921, provided that psychiatric trecitment can be made available as complementary to residence in the Hostel. The Committee specially welcomes this decision of the Board as it strengthens the recom- mendation made by them when considering the general question of Hostels.
A Report of the work of the Committee since its formation has been prepared and is now in the press. Applications for copies should be addressed to the Secretary, ^ Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.I.
^?C.C. Mental Health Services Extensive administrative changes have recently been made in the London County Council’s Mental Health Services, involving the discontinuance of the Mental A Hospitals Department (which includes Mental Deficiency) as a separate unit and the transference of its work to the Public Health Department. This means that the Mental Hospitals and Mental Deficiency Institutions will, in future, be under the same control as the Council’s general hospitals, although they are to be placed in a separate department at the head of which will (as before) be a layman responsible to the Medical Officer of Health, with the designation ” Administrative Officer, Mental Health Services The Mental Hospitals Committee will continue in being, with 28 members of the Council and 20 co-opted members, but with the Clerk of the Council now at its desk. To quote from the Lancet :
” The reshuffle is an interesting compromise and one that contains the germ of success, for it gives everyone who has knowledge and experience in the care of mental illness, the opportunity of using them to the best advantage… . The outcome will be watched with particular interest by the local authorities, such as Surrey and Glasgow, which have already taken action in the same direction. In other cases, envy may be followed by emulation.”
It will be remembered that the Feversham Committee has recommended that every authority should appoint a Mental Health Committee, including the Visiting Committee and the Committee for the Care of the Mentally Defective, which should be on the same footing as other committees responsible for public health and social welfare, and should include representatives of the education authority and of local bodies and individuals interested in mental health. It recommended, further, that the mental health staff of every authority should be shared between the mental health committee and the education committee.
Another administrative change recently made by the L.C.C. is in the name of the Public Assistance Department which is henceforth to be known as the ” Socia’ Welfare Department “.
Mental Defectives and Air Raids
An interesting scheme has been drawn up by the Leeds Voluntary Mental Welfare Committee to meet the needs of defectives who may be left homeless, or temporarily separated from their parents, as the result of enemy action.
A ” Mental Welfare Emergency Reserve ” has been formed consisting of a number of voluntary workers who, after a major raid, have undertaken to visit their nearest Public Air Raid Shelters to take charge of any defectives needing special care and to place those who have been separated from their families through death or the destruction of their homes, in temporary billets. Volunteers, who can enrol for the purpose as members of the Women’s Voluntary Services, will be covered by insurance and will wear the ” Shelter Marshal’s ” Armlet. The co-operation of the Chief Divisional Warden has been secured, and Senior Wardens and Marshals have beet1 asked to give their assistance.
Information about defectives in private household shelters found to be in nee of help, will be given to the nearest volunteer by the local Wardens. A list of emergency billets in private houses has been drawn up and is to t>e supplemented from time to time.
It has not as yet been possible to cover the whole of the area, but by February 1st the names of twenty-four volunteers had been received and fourteen people had offered billets.
The C.A.M.W. feels that the provision of emergency care for defectives under air raid conditions is one of considerable importance, and it is hoped that the Leeds scheme may encourage other Authorities who may not, up to the present, have given any special attention to the matter, to draw up a similar plan.
Mary Dendy Homes
At the beginning of April, the Lancashire and Cheshire Incorporated Society for the Care of the Feeble-minded, formally handed over the Mary Dendy Homes, Sandlebridge, to the Cheshire County Council.
The Homes, opened many years ago as a pioneer enterprise largely through the initiative and enthusiasm of Miss Mary Dendy, have had a long and honourable career, but increasing financial difficulties have made it impossible for them to be carried on as a private enterprise.
The County Council had agreed to retain the name of the Homes, as a Permanent memorial to their founder, and the President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Society?Alderman C. M. Bowden?had been appointed deputy chairman of the new committee.
Plymouth Voluntary Association for Mental Welfare
We regret to announce that the office of this Association was totally destroyed in one of Plymouth’s intensive recent raids and all the records were lost. The temporary address of the Association is: c/o Council of Social Service, Morley Chambers, 4 Morley Street, Plymouth.
Defectives and National Service
It should be noted that the Statutory Rule and Order, No. 368, issued in March, ?n the subject of Registration for Employment, provides for the exemption of mentally defective women in the same manner as Section II (I) (/) of the National Services (Armed Forces) Act, 1939, provides for defective males. The exemption applies, it will be remembered, to defectives under Statutory Supervision as well as to those in Institutions. A ” Linking-up ” Scheme
The Mental Health Emergency Committee, through its workers in various parts * ?f the country, has received ample evidence of the need for detailed social work amongst evacuated children which inevitably raises the question of how best to Maintain contact between the child in his new home and the parents in the old one. The following scheme on the lines of one at present being considered by an evacuating Authority in whose area there is a Child Guidance Clinic, might, we suggest, be usefully adopted.
The aim of the scheme is to set up machinery whereby an active liaison may be Maintained between the evacuating and the reception area, designed to safeguard the children’s mental and material welfare and to foster in the parents a continuing sense of responsibility at the same time, allaying any natural anxiety they may be feeling which might lead to precipitate action. It is also designed to create the conditions under which the eventual reunion of parents and children after the war may be happily accomplished.
The main points of the scheme are as follows:
(1) That a trained social worker should be appointed as Welfare Officer to work in conjunction with the evacuating authority at one end and the billeting authority at the other, and to maintain links between parents, foster-parents and children.
(2) That a number of voluntary workers should be enlisted to visit parents in the evacuation area and discuss with them any matters affecting the children’s needs, e.g. clothing, etc.
(3) That the Welfare Officer should be kept informed of any matters which are troubling the parents. The local Child Guidance Clinic might help in this, by acting as a parents’ advice bureau, working in close touch with the Welfare Officer.
(4) That in any case of psychological difficulty, the co-operation of the Clinic should be sought and if necessary, a psychiatrist or a psychiatric social worker should be asked to pay a special visit.
It has been proved by practical experience that a visit from a worker who comes from his home town and can give assurances that all is well with his family circle, may be an important factor in bringing about a child’s adjustment, whereas the clearing up of small difficulties at both ends as they arise, may not only prevent unnecessary friction between parents and foster-parents but may avert precipitate return. Such a scheme would therefore, it is suggested, make a considerable contribution to successful evacuation and is well worthy of careful note.
Hostel for Agricultural Workers, by the C.A.M.W.
A scheme is now being considered for the opening of a Hostel for male defectives capable of being employed as agricultural labourers. Efforts which have been made to find such work for cases referred to the Association have been largely frustrated owing to the difficulty of securing living accommodation and it is anticipated that the enterprise should have every chance of success. The co-operation of the Board of Control and of the Ministry of Agriculture has been secured, and it is hoped that by the time the next issue of Mental Health appears, the Hostel will be fully established- It is proposed that the defectives admitted to the Hostel should be of the high’ grade type capable of earning the full Minimum Wage and that a permit for exemption should only be applied for in the event of failure to reach the necessary standard after an initial trial.
Experiments on these lines have already successfully met the needs of certain groups of normal workers, e.g. refugees, and the scheme would appear to be eminently suitable not only for defectives but also for other handicapped members of the community, such as epileptics and ” borderline ” cases. The County Agricultural Committee in whose area the Hostel is situated, provides premises and equipment and arranges for a lorry to call each day to fetch the workers, and for their super- vision and control by an experienced foreman. Expenses of maintenance, etc., are met by payments made by the inmates out of wages, so that the scheme should be self-supporting if weekly payments are based on a scale high enough to allow for winter unemployment.
Although new to this country, a scheme of a similar type was instituted many years ago in connection with the Rome State School, New York, where a group of high-grade girls living in a Hostel, were employed in a neighbouring factory under the supervision of their own forewoman.
Glasgow’s ” Rejected ” Children
In the Times Educational Supplement of April 12th, there appeared an interesting account, written by its medical officer, of a Hostel for forty of Glasgow’s most difficult evacuees who had, after a short period of trial, been ejected from the billets ln which they found themselves, and returned as impossible. I.Q.s ranged from 80 to 170, and delinquencies from attempted murder of another child to ” the habit of chewing the lapels off a coat in an agony of nervous agitation All the children were profoundly unhappy and none of them knew how to play or to co-operate with others for any purpose.
The Hostel was established at Nerston, near the city, as a clearing house and is Under the supervision of a staff of experienced clinicians. The children are taught individually or in groups of two or three, and during six months it is recorded that some have made more than two years’ normal progress. They have also learnt how to play together and ther.e is great enthusiasm for the weekly football match, boys versus girls. This experiment is looked upon as ” a miniature of what education might be f?r ” six months of love and wisdom has created from neurotics and delinquents, hoys and girls conscious of the joys of life, quick in sympathy and understanding and loyal to an ideal “.
Tavistock Clinic Lectures
A Course of five lectures is to be given at the Tavistock Clinic, Westfield College, Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, N.W.3, at 5.30 p.m., on May 16th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, and June 4th.
The general title of the Course is ” Delinquency “, and the lecturers include P. D. Hamlyn, Chief Social Worker at the Clinic; Miss G. E. Chesters, Play herapist; Dr R. E. Lucas, Assistant Physician; Major H. V. Dicks, R.A.M.C.,
Assistant Medical Director.
The last session on Wednesday, June 4th, takes the form of a Case Discussion etweenDr Alice Hutchison, Physician Children’s Department ; Mrs. P. D. Hamlyn; and Miss Hilda Bristol, Educational Psychologist. The fee for the Course is 7s. 6d.; single lectures, 2s. Application for tickets hould be made, in advance, to the Educational Secretary at the Clinic. *
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