Training Courses for Teachers, 1936
The following training courses organised by the C.A.M.W. for teachers of retarded children will be held from May to September, 1936. t. A Nine Weeds’ Course, which will be held in London from May 21st to July 23rd.
2. Two Board of Education Short Courses, each of three weeks in length. Elementary Course, in Leicester from August 25th to September 15th. Advanced Course, in London from July 6th to 25th.
The dates given are provisional, but particulars of these Courses will be circularised early in February, when they may also be obtained on application to The Secretary, C.A.M.W., 24, Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.i. Course for Medical Practitioners
This Course, arranged by the University Extension and Tutorial Classes Council in co-operation with the C.A.M.W., will be held at the University of London, South Kensington, from April 20th to May 2nd.
C.A.W.M. Holiday Homes
The two holiday homes at Bognor and Rhyl, to which the C.A.M.W. has in the past arranged for holiday parties of defectives, have met with such success that the Association has embarked on a third venture, at Flint House, Seaford, Sussex, a seaside house admirably adapted for the purpose. This house will be open all the year round and parties of men and boys, as well as of women and girls, can be received. It is hoped that it will thus meet a real need as hitherto no holiday home for defective men and boys has been available in the south of England. Applications for vacancies should be made as soon as possible to the Secretary, C.A.M.W., 24, Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.i, stating which home is required: ?
Franklin House, Bognor, Sussex? Open May to October. Accommodation for 28 women and girls. Fee: ?1 per week.
Bod Donwen, Rhyl, N. Wales? All the year round from March 1st, 1936. Accommodation for 33, both sexes in separate parties. Fee: ?1 per week. Flint House, Seaford, Sussex? All the year round. Accommodation for 36, both sexes in separate parties. Fee: ?1 Is. 6d. per week. At each home there is accommodation in separate rooms for visiting staff. Staff fees: 26/6 per week for women, 31/6 per week for men.
Mental Welfare Library ———————-The Library has, during the last few weeks, been enriched by the gift of a number of books and pamphlets belonging to the late Dr F. C. Shrubsall, presented by Mrs. Shrubsall in token of her husband’s long-continued interest in and regard for the work of the Association.
The books have been very gratefully received and constitute a valuable addition to the Library’s stock. A catalogue of them has been supplied to subscribers, a copy of which will gladly be sent by the Librarian to anyone who is interested.
The Mental Health Course (London School of Economics)
In the present issue of Mental Welfare, scholarships are again offered by the London School of Economics for the year’s Course in Mental Health. It has not always been recognised that this Course is arranged with a view to supplying the knowledge and experience needed by those who work with mental defectives as well as by those who intend to become social workers in Mental Hospitals and Child Guidance Clinics. It is, in fact, designed, as its name implies, to give training in every aspect of Mental Health, and this involves lectures, demonstrations and visits in connection with mental deficiency, and, for those whose choice of work lies in this direction, special case work and administrative experience organised by the Central Association for Mental Welfare.
The training is a specialised one, and is only considered suitable for those who have already qualified for general social work and have had practical experience.
The Course opens in September and lasts for ten months. The expense, including fees and travelling, does not amount to more than about ^36. Those who are dependent on a scholarship should apply before May 1st, 1936, and others may apply until the end of June. In both cases early applications add to convenience in the organisation of the Course.
Child Guidance Council
An interesting development in the work of the Child Guidance Council is the organisation of a Three Day Course for Workers in Homes and Institu tions for Children, which is to be held in London from February 25th to 27th. ” The aim of the Course “?to quote from the Syllabus “?” is to give practical help in the application of modern psychological knowledge to problems likely to be met with by those having the care of children in Institutions,” and it is intended for senior members of Home or Institution staffs. Full particulars of the Course can be obtained from the Organiser, Child Guidance Council, Woburn Llouse, Upper Woburn Place, London, W.C.i,
Child Guidance Clinics and the Board of Education
The subject of Child Guidance Clinics is dealt with at some length in the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education (Dr. Arthur McNalty) for the year 1934.
In paying a tribute to the pioneer work done by the East London Clinic started in 1926 and the London Child Guidance Clinic started in 1929, the Board urge the necessity for putting Clinics on a satisfactory financial basis, so that their position may be consolidated and their number (at present only between 15 and 20 for the whole country) may be increased.
For the first time, during the year under review the Board officially recognised expenditure on child guidance by allowing expenditure on the Clinic established by the Birmingham Education Committee to rank for grant as part of the provision for the school medical service, subject to the proviso that such recognition should be subject to review in the light of further inspection. The principle has also been established that Local Education Authorities may contribute to Voluntary Child Guidance Clinics for services rendered to children who have been referred by school medical officers.
In outlining some tentative suggestions with regard to the staffing and general organisation of Clinics, the Chief Medical Officer expresses his view that it is important to dissociate a Child Guidance Clinic in the public mind from either mental defect or mental disorder, and that therefore care should be taken in choosing premises which should be unconnected with a mental deficiency institution or mental hospital. Further, if the psychiatrist should be one of the local mental hospital’s staff, this fact should not appear in Clinic reports or other publications, and if the Social Worker is only employed parttime he considers it preferable she ” should have no connection with mental health visiting or mental deficiency in her other employment.”* These safeguards he advocates in order to ensure that parents are not deterred in sending their children to the Clinic for examination.
The Report refers to the large number of dull or backward children whose problems are really educational who are sent by teachers to newly opened Clinics and for whom Clinic staffs can do little beyond recommending individual teaching in school by enlightened methods. ” It is only,” Dr McNalty says, ” when educational retardation appears to be the cause of nervous or behaviour problems that it is part of the clinic’s work to arrange for special remedial teaching, which may be given by the educational psychologist, who should know school standards and conditions, by students helpers, or best of all, in an experimental school such as that existing in Leicester.”
Diploma in Child Health
The English Conjoint Board of the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians, has recently instituted a post-graduate Diploma *There is, of course, another side to this question taken by those who are seeking to establish some system of co-ordinating the various Mental Health services.-?Ed.
in Child Health, the subjects for which are as follows: ? (a) The anatomy, physiology and pathology of childhood, (b) The development of the child, physical and mental, including speech, with its disorders; physical education in childhood, (c) The hygiene and dietetics of infancy and childhood, (d) Affections of the new-born, (e) Disease in infancy and childhood, medical and surgical, (f) The therapeutics of infancy and childhood, including remedial treatment., physical and mental, (g) Legislation and public administration in regard to the care of children, including the methods of infant welfare centres and of the school medical service.
Candidates for the examination must produce evidence of experience in a children’s hospital, or in the children’s department of a general hospital. The Diploma is intended for medical men and women taking up child welfare work under various authorities, as well as for general practitioners wishing to make a special study of the child as a whole.
Ireland
A Special School for feeble-minded children has been recently opened in Belfast by the Ulster Ministry of Education. At the moment considerable difficulty is being experienced by the Belfast Education Committee in obtaining the consent of the parents to their children’s admission but the Ministry are undeterred by this difficulty, which they anticipated, and are confident that once the advantages offered by the school are fully known, they will be appreciated and used to the full.
At a luncheon given at St. Augustine’s Colony for mentally defective boys, Co. Dublin?under the management of the Community of St. John of God?it was announced that the Minister for Local Government and Public Health in the Irish Free State hoped to introduce legislation for dealing with mental deficiency on an adequate scale. He had stated, however, that the matter would be facilitated if public opinion were first roused.
A Great Experiment A new development in the treatment of mental illness is about to take place at Milton Abbey, Hants, which has been acquired by the Rev. John Maillard?well-known for his activities in spiritual healing?as a Home for mental patients.
The Home will be under medical supervision but its work will be directed and animated by a faith in the possibility of spiritual healing and?to quote from an address given by the Bishop of Salisbury: ? ” It is possible that Milton Abbey may be the scene of a great experiment ?perhaps the greatest experiment hitherto attempted within our Church? in this field.”
It is an experiment which will be watched with sympathy and interest by all who are concerned with the welfare of mental sufferers. MENTAL WELFARE 23 Dementia Praecox in the United States ————————————- The American National Committee for Mental Hygiene have instituted a ” nation-wide campaign against dementia praecox,” which is described as ” the most devastating of all mental ills, whose victims fill more hospital beds than those of all other forms of mental disease combined.” In a News Bulletin issued by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, the urgency of the problem is pointed out. The recovery rate for dementia praecox patients in New York State in 1933 was only 2.2 per 100 admissions, as compared with 42.9 per 100 admissions of manic-depressive psychoses. Of the 3,125 re-admissions to the State hospitals during the same year, 37.2 per cent, were cases of dementia praecox. Moreover, the disease is one of youth, two-thirds of the cases occurring between the ages of 15 and 30 years. The campaign?financed by a fund of 40,000 dollars provided by the Scottish Rite Masons, Northern Jurisdiction?is to be directed by a special committee of seven leading American psychiatrists, who have selected 13 main problems for research which will be carried on by 17 investigators working in 10 cities and 7 States.
The enterprise is described as representing ” the most comprehensive and far-reaching attempt yet undertaken to deal with the problem in a fundamental way.”
Occupational Therapy Centre
An interesting experiment has just been launched in London to bring the benefits of Occupation Therapy to sufferers from mental or physical illness living in their own homes or being treated in nursing homes.
Patients can either come to the Centre for lessons, or can be visited in their homes, and the subjects taught include r Weaving, Dyeing, Spinning, Rug Tapestry, Book-binding, Toy-making, Basketry, Leatherwork, Lettering, Clay Modelling, Design, Pottery Painting, Textile Printing, Embroidery, Stoolmaking, and Glove-making. Instruction in Elocution can also be arranged. Patients of both sexes and all ages are provided for.
The Centre is under the direction of Miss E. Angela Rivett and Miss Muriel I. Tarrant, both of whom have had experience in Occupational Therapy at the Maudsley Hospital.
Its address is: 187a, Tottenham Court Road, W.i, where all enquiries should be made. Speech Training The Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education in his 1934 Report* devotes an interesting chapter to ” Stammering and other Speech Defects,” in which appreciative reference is made to the work of the C.A.M.W.’s Travelling Speech Therapist. *” The Health of the School Child,” 1934. H.M. Stationery Office. 2/6.
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