News and Notes
Courses Arranged by the C.A.M.W.
As we go to press the C.A.M.W.’s educational activities are in full swing. The following Courses are being arranged during the next few months :? Short Courses for Teachers (organised for the Board of Education).?The Sheffield Course is beginning on April 18th and will be attended by 33 teachers. Schools in Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham will be visited, but the students will be housed 15 miles from Sheffield in the Co-operative Holidays Association’s Guest House at Hope, on the Derbyshire Moors. Here all the lectures and classes will be held.
For the London Course, from July 2nd to July 23rd, hostel accommodation has been secured at King’s College Hostel, Vincent Square, where the Course last year was also held. This second Course is intended primarily for more experienced teachers, especially for those who have already taken Part II. The demand for these Courses continues as keen as ever and the number of applicants is always greatly in excess of the available accommodation.
Three Months’ Course for Teachers (May 7th to July 25th).? 1 his Course for teachers of Mentally Defective and Dull and Backward Children is being organised by the C.A.M.W.?as announced in our last issue?to meet the need of teachers newly taking up work in Special Schools or Backward Classes for whom the ordi- nary Short Courses do not piovide a long” enough period of training. Ihe Course has been well supported by Local Education Authorities and 34 teachers from different parts of the country have been enrolled. About half this number are being sent by their Authorities in order that they may be qualified on their return to take charge of classes for Dull and Backward Children : the other half, with only one or two exceptions, are teachers from areas in which new Special Schools, for which a trained staff will be needed, are shortly to be opened.
As this Course is largely of a pioneer nature we feel that more than usual interest and importance is attached to it, and we hope in a forthcoming number to report upon it fully, discussing how far it may be considered to have achieved its object, and especially how far it has made a definite contribution towards the problem of the training of teachers for Dull and Backward Classes. For this has yet to be solved, and no experimental work in connection with it can justifiably be passed over unrecorded.
Course for Medical Practitioners (May 18th to May 23rd).?Ihe sixth Course on Mental Deficiency for Medical Practitioners, to be arranged by the University of London Extension Board in co-operation with the C.A.M.W., will shortly be held. The Course will follow the lines of those preceding it and will consist of lectures and clinical work.
Course for Nurses and Attendants in Institutions for the Mentally Defective and in Mental Hospitals (October bill to 24?/i, 1925).? Ibis is the fiist Course of the kind to be undertaken by the C.A.M.W. and is being held largely on ?3ccount of the experience gained by the Association through the work of its Occupational Organisers. This has revealed the fact that in the smaller Institutions and in Mental Hospitals, where there are a small number of mentally defective children, there is, on the part of those attendants and nurses whose duties include educa- tional and occupational training as well as physical care, both a need foi and a desire for the special knowledge which will make them more efficient and moie helpful. It is this need and this desire that the Course hopes to meet.
The curriculum will include classes in handwork, rhythmic training, country dancing and speech training, with lectures on the principles of training, recreation and general development of defectives, on Child Study and on the medical aspects of Mental Deficiency. Visits to Schools and Institutions will also be arranged, and opportunities will be given for informal discussions with the Organiser in charge of the Course. Hostel accommodation will be provided so that students may have the advantages of close contact with each other.
The Course has received the full approval of the Board of Control who are prepared, under certain circumstances, to recognise for purposes of grant, ex- penditure incurred by Local Authorities in sending nurses or attendants. Further particulars of any of the Courses announced above may he obtained from the offices of the C.A.M.W24, Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.I. Mental Deficiency (Amendment) Bill, 1925.
The object of this Bill, which was introduced recently by Sir Leslie Scott and which has just passed its Second Reading, cannot be better summarised than is done in the Memorandum prefacing it, viz. :?
” Under the provisions of section seven of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, a defective who has been by order placed under guardianship may, with the consent of a judicial authority, be sent to an institution.” ” Some defectives, after prolonged residence in institutions, improve sufficiently to permit of their being sent out of the institution if some arrange- ments are available for providing care and supervision for them outside. The existing law does not allow of transfer from an institution to guardianship, but only from guardianship to an institution.”
” If it is desired to transfer a case from an institution to guardianship, it is at present necessary to discharge the patient and to take all the proceed- ings necessary to obtain a new order. These proceedings are cumbrous and expensive. This Bill provides that the same machinery which is available for transferring cases from guardianship to institutions shall be available for the transfer of cases from institutions to guardianship.”
The need for this reform of the existing law has been frequently urged by the Commissioners of the Board of Control in their Annual Reports, and if it is effected one obstruction which prevents the more widespread use of Guardianship will then have been removed.
The Bill is a private one but as it deals only with a detailed point of procedure and is clearly for the benefit of defectives it is unlikely to arouse any opposition and its promoters hope that it may quickly pass into law.
A Mental Deficiency Exhibit at Wembley.
It may be remembered that last year the C.A.M.W. showed at the British Empire Exhibition for one month an exhibit of photographs, work done by and apparatus used for the training of mental defectives in schools and institutions. This year we are glad to be able to announce that the responsibility for a similar exhibit has been taken over by the Board of Control and that it will be shown as illustrating one of the activities in which the nation as a whole is engaged, and for which the nation as a whole considers itself responsible.
Mental Welfare workers visiting- Wembley are urged to make a point of seeing- the exhibit which will be found in the Government Pavilion, Ministry of Health section.
A New Borderline Home.
We are glad to give publicity to the following announcement which has been issued by the West Lancashire Association for Mental Welfare, and we feel that the Association is to be cordially congrahdated on having instigated a piece of work which is crying out to be attempted :?
” For some time the Association has had considerable difficulty in suitably assisting- certain cases that are referred to them, namely, those who cause anxiety by difficult and delinquent conduct, and who in addition appear to those who have had dealings with them to be mentally unstable or abnormal, though not certifiable at the time under either the Mental Deficiency Act or the Lunacy Act.
” Such cases are already being received in Homes and Institutions in our area. They tend either to be sent away as too difficult to manage, or because they do not improve sufficiently to recommend for any employment. ” We find girls of this kind tend to wander from one home to another, to the great expense of voluntary bodies, and without the possibility of bringing them under the observation of a Mental Specialist, with a view to procuring constructive treatment.
” The Association in January of this year entered into an agreement with the Committee of St. Agnes’ Home, Thatto Heath, whereby our Association maintains 4 beds, for a trial period of a year in St. Agnes, for the observation of cases such as have been described, who are suitable to mix with the other inmates of the Home?who are also mainly young preventive cases.
” The house is a pleasant one, with a large garden, and the numbers will never be too large for individual attention. It is possible to provide a good deal of outdoor work?gardening and poultry?and in addition arrangements are being- made for the teaching of handwork indoors. It is adjacent to the Mental Hos- pital, Rainhill, and by kind permission of the Lancashire Asylums Board, we have the expert opinion of Dr Reeve, the Medical Superintendent, on any cases referred to him.
” Dr Reeve very kindly has arranged to interview the girls in their usual surroundings at St. Agnes, and it will be of the greatest value to have his advice as to the right course to pursue for their benefit. ” The girls are not kept for long periods, but sufficiently long for thorough observation.
” It is thought that Magistrates and others who have to deai with the problem of the unstable and difficult adolescent might be interested to hear of t is experiment, and we venture to bring it to your notice, and ask you to make it known to others who may be interested.” ” N.B.?Cases of obvious mental defect are not eligible for admission. Out-County Cases can be received at payments to be arranged. For Parti- culars apply to Miss F. Andrew, W. Lancashire Association for Mental \ elfare, 14, Castle Street, Liverpool.
Internationa! Prison Congress.
At the 9th International Prison Congress to be held in London from August 3rd to August 10th this year, the C.A.M.W. will be officially represented and Miss Evelyn Fox has been asked to submit a paper in answer to the following- questions which form one of the subjects for discussion :?
” Is it desirable that services, e.g., laboratories or clinics, should be installed in Prisons for the scientific study of criminals? Would such a system help both to determine the causes of criminality and to suggest the suitable treatment in the case of the individual offender? Would it not be advisable to use the same system for the examination before trial of persons suspected of some mental defect?”
The Congress?which meets in London for the first time?is a specially inter- esting one as it is 15 years since it last met in Washington and during this period, as the President, Sir E. Ruggles-Brise, points out, not only have the problems then discussed retained their importance but new ones of even greater urgency have come to the front. *
Amongst these new problems those to which the questions quoted above refer may perhaps be placed first and the papers and discussions upon them should be of the greatest value to Mental Welfare workers throughout the world.
International Congress on Child Welfare, Geneva, 1925.
At this important Congress, which is to be held at Geneva under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Government, from August 24th to August 28th, the problem of the Mentally Defective child is to receive due attention, one of the subjects scheduled for discussion being ” The standardisation of the definition of mental defect and of its different degrees.”
The English speaking section of the Congress is arranging that a paper on this subject shall be contributed from England although at the time of going to press the name of the expert whose services are to be enlisted has not been officially announced.
The Congress is to be open not only to official representatives but to all individuals interested in Child Welfare provided that application is made on the prescribed form and a fee of One Guinea is paid. Special facilities in connection with the journey to and from Geneva and for accommodation whilst there will be available for members.
Enquiries for further information should be addressed to the Secretary of the English Speaking Section, Mr. L. B. Golden, 26, Gordon Street, W.C.l. * In connection with the Congress, Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise has written a new book entitled ” Prison Reform?At Home and Abroad.” Macmillan & Co., Ltd., Price 5s.
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