Evacuation and Mental Health Problems
MENTAL WELFARE 107
Through its Educational Psychologists who have been working in ” Reception Areas “, and through teachers who have reported their personal experiences, the C.A.M.W. has already acquired abundant evidence of the existence of problems amongst the evacuated school population the solution of which would seem to need the contribution of the psychologist and the Mental Health social worker as well as that which other types of workers can make.
One correspondent?a Head Master who has specially concerned himself with the education of retarded children?writes : ” You and your organisation now have a wonderful chance of being useful”, and urges the need for people of ” sympathetic understanding and vision to go round the countryside pressing, begging for, and organising welfare work ” of all kinds. The following extracts from a letter reporting his experiences in the remote village to which he, with his school has been drafted, give a vivid picture of some of the difficulties with which ” evacuated ” teachers everywhere are now valiantly striving to deal.
” I have been greatly perturbed at the immense numbers of eneuretics. , How much of this is due to the stress, maybe temporary, of change of home and environment it i.s difficult to say… . Then again I had a child suddenly develop fits’?probably induced by his change of billet, and fear. Difficult (delinquent) children have been turned out of billets … and dumped on my own doorstep.” …” Something urgent had to be done for these unwanteds; I got a spacious house and grounds and put them there … and now they are happy.”
“… There are children who are shy and distressed in cottage homes that are run on old fashioned discipline lines… . Either they cry and cry, or prove aggressive and go home. … Yet most children tolerate their billets, and I suppose, so far, 50 per cent, would not go back if they could. Say 25 per cent are passably contented. 25 per cent, would go back at once, and of these, say 10 per cent, are definitely unhappy, uncared for, decidedly out of gear.”
Talks on the wireless, he suggests, on the management of children should be arranged for the benefit of these new and often bewildered foster-parents, and ” organisation for leisure ” is urgently needed. The opportunities are endless, if the skilled and experienced workers are forthcoming.
There was, of course, no means of accurately assessing beforehand the extent and nature of the problems which would arise in connection with an experiment of such magnitude, and some of them have proved to be far more acute than had been envisaged. Particularly is this the case with regard to eneuresis, a disability which, however, it must be borne in mind, does not under ordinary conditions make itself known as parents are naturally reluctant to disclose its existence to doctors or social workers. Without further research, therefore, it is impossible either to arrive at any estimate of its prevalence under ordinary conditions, or to assess what proportion of it is due to the emotional disturbances created by evacuation. Evidence of the distress and friction which it is producing is abundant, but it is encouraging to read the report of one of the C.A.M.W.’s Educational Psychologists working in a Reception Area, that in most cases in which her help had been sought, the foster-parents were being ” extremely sensible, often taking great pains to effect a cure. In nearly all cases, affection for the child had overcome their spontaneous disgust.”
Referring to another of the ” mental health ” problems which is everywhere creating difficulties?viz., that of the frequent visiting of evacuated children by parents and relatives?this same worker writes of a scheme in one village where a comfortable meeting place has been set aside for visits, with facilities for tea, etc., provided by voluntary workers; this is one method by which, it is suggested, there may be alleviated ” the conditions of jealousy which arises when the parent, over-anxious to see her own child, is met by the obvious and natural affection of the child for the new foster-parent.”
The need for provision for the disposal of ” difficult children” was referred to by the Board of Education in Circular 1469 (issued in May, 1939), in which it was suggested that local authorities should consider the possibility of placing them in empty houses equipped for the purpose with a staff experienced in child guidance matters. In a Circular recently issued by the Ministry of Health, ” Public Health Services in the Receiving Ar.eas ” (No. 1882), the subject is again mentioned with the suggestions made by the Board, and Local Authorities are further reminded of the existence of ” special schools” willing to receive difficult children. As reported on page 105, the Mental Health Emergency Committee are devoting careful attention to this particular problem and have circularised Education Authorities making certain concrete proposals and offers of help in regard to it.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.