News and Notes
The Nursing Service in Mental Hospitals and in Certified Institutions for Defectives. The Board of Control has issued (Circular G77) its views on the findings of the Conference convened last April to consider the Report of the Depart- mental Committee on Nursing-. We referred at some length in the July issue last year to this important Report and Conference.
The Board endorses the general recommendations designed to secure a general hospital training as well as a training in mental nursing for the higher posts in the mental service, and the raising of the standard of pay and efficiency, and approves of the nursing of male patients by women nurses in suitable cases. It also emphasises the importance of suitable occupations for patients, and approves of the appointment of Occupation Instructors as well as of voluntary Patients’ Friends. The Board would also welcome an experiment being made in the appointment of “Companions” specially trained for the social side of mental nursing, who should work side by side with the fully-trained general nurses.
A special Conference on the Training and Examination of Nurses for Mental Defectives was convened last month by the General Nursing Council, who are considering certain questions which have arisen in framing regulations for examination prior to registration. This Conference was private.
Rural Education.
The insistent problem of the rural child is ever coming to the fore, whether it be considered from the general national need for a larger rural population or from the point of view of the health and education of the individual child. The Board of Education has done well to publish a summary of what is being- attempted by the various Local Authorities (Rural Education, Education Pamphlets No. 46, price 6d.). While the education of the normal child in the remote districts presents a great problem, the proper education of the mentally defective child in such districts seems at times almost unattainable. It is extremely interesting to note in the pamphlet that various methods are employed so as to meet the difficulty of teaching domestic subjects where no centres are available. In some areas teachers of domestic subjects are stationed in the larger villages and work there during the winter, and groups of girls from neighbouring villages attend every day. In the summer the teacher moves from village to village, spending perhaps a month in each village, during which the children attend an intensive course.
The employment by Local Education Authorities of rural areas of visiting teachers specially trained in the individual methods of teaching sub-normal and mentally defective children may in the future offer a solution for part at least of the problem of educating the defective child in rural areas; that is, the education of the higher grade feeble-minded child with no anti-social tendencies. The Westmorland Education Committee, finding it at present impracticable to provide a Special School for the County, has appointed on supply a visiting teacher (who is coming to the C.A.M.W.’s nine weeks’ course for special training), who will visit the schools, where there are feeble-minded and dull and backward children, and will advise their teachers on special methods of training- applicable to these children. She will also visit the homes of those children who do not attend school. With the right teacher this should prove a most valuable experiment.
Beacon School, Lichfield.
This new Residential School, under the Walsall Education Committee, was opened in March, and now has its full complement of 42 boys and 32 girls. Hitherto, the school has been a ” truant ” school and later a short-term Industrial School, but there was no longer sufficient need for such accommo- dation. West Bromwich and Burton, which were responsible, with Walsall, for the old school, dp not share the new responsibility. We arc not surprised to hear that the number of applications for vacancies from outside areas has been far in excess of the accommodation, for in every locality there are educable mentally defective children who cannot be received into Residential Schools for lack of accommodation.
The Nation’s Health Exhibition.
Leicester, Wednesday, May 12th, to Saturday, May 22nd, 192G. An important Exhibition is to be held at Leicester in May, designed to bring before the public the health needs of the nation. The various voluntary national organisations concerned with health, housing, food, etc., such as the British Social Hy giene Council, the National Council for Infant and Child Welfare, the National Baby Week Council, etc., are being represented, and the Central Association for Mental Welfare has decided to take a stall and to show the Association’s film, ” The Education and Training of Mental Defectives.”
The Medical Officers of the City and County of Leicester are taking an active part in making the arrangements, and a really useful opportunity will be afforded the public, and especially the public of the Midlands, of realising how many opportunities for health are now offered. It is all to the good that the Exhibition should be in the provinces, and the C.A.M.W. is glad of the ?pportunity of propaganda.
Further particulars can be obtained from the Secretary of the Exhibition, Crew, Esq., Office of the City Health Department, Grey Friars, Leicester. Retarded and Mentally Defective Children.
The Children’s Branch of the Home Office has issued a circular setting forward in great detail the exact procedure regarding children who are found ]n Industrial Schools to be mentally defective. Various alterations are put forward, and the need for close co-operation with Mental Deficiency Committees for the after-care of such children after they leave the Industrial Schools is emphasised.
Agnas Western Centre.
The Stop Watch Competition, organised by Mrs. Anderson, resulted in a profit to the Centre of ?63 5s. The winner was Mr. Cotman, 33, Darfield Road, Crofton Park, S.E.L The watch stopped at 10 hr. 6 min. 25 sec.
Psychopathology.
During- March, three Goulstonian lectures on Psychopathology were delivered by Dr Bernard Hart at the Royal College of Physicians.
The lectures were of extreme interest, and the first and second of them have already appeared in the Lancet. We hope that at some future date they may be issued in book form. Dr Hart is intent to show that Psychopathology must be distinguished from clinical psychiatry and from an interpretation of mental disorder by physiological conceptions. After an interesting survey of the psychological factors in ancient and primitive medicine and of magnetism, he says : ” Psychopathology has descended, not from the magnetic theory, but from a re-consideration of the phenomena observed during the magnetic state.” His account of the early explanation of the phenomena of hysteria serves to emphasise what he calls ” the immensely important ” contribution of Janet, and his conception of “dissociation of consciousness.”
Interchange of Teachers.
We have been asked to announce that the English Speaking Union, Trafalgar Buildings, 1, Charing Cross, S.W.I, has become responsible for the work in connection with the interchange of teachers for special schools between England and America, and all communications should be addressed to the Union. Our readers will remember that hitherto Miss Bridie (until recently Superintendent of Special Schools, Birmingham) has admirably carried out the necessary arrangements.
Encephalitis Lethargica.
Weekly notifications (reproduced from the Lancet) :? Week ending Week ending Week ending Jan. 2 32 Feb. 6 52 Mar. G 52 9 55 13 35 13 45 16 67 20 46 20 45 23 31 27 44 27 37 30 55 240 177 179 Total 596
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