C.A.M.W. Holiday Homes B.B.C. APPEAL
The B.B.C. Appeal for the C.A.M.W.’s Holiday Homes, given by the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Scott on Sunday, 16th July, had a very successful outcome, bringing in a total sum of ?585 5s. 7d.
This included one donation of ?50, one of ?25, one of ?20, one of ?10, and 215 of 10/- and over, and for these generous contributions the Association is very grateful. It also wishes to place on record its appreciation of the generosity of the 640 donors who sent small amounts, from 1/- upwards, some of them accompanied by touching letters which showed that the gift made was one involving personal sacrifice and representing a real concern for the happiness of those in whose service it was to be used. The following are extracts from some of the letters received :?
” After hearing your appeal on Sunday night, I felt I should like to send 1/-, although I have not done any work for some 9 year.s. I hope you will have a good response for a good holiday for all who stand in so great need of it.” ” Hearing your appeal on Sunday night, please accept this small amount as I am a widow and one who is not fortunate to receive a pension although I am 66. I feel for who you appeal for, as I have a daughter who has epilepsy and cannot work. Hoping my 1/- will help the cause…
” I heard your talk on the wireless on Sunday yight, and I was very touched and it made me feel how thankful I should be which sometimes I am not.” ” Having heard your appeal yesterday evening, I was struck with a feeling of sympathy for these people. I have spent 12 years and more of the best years of a man’s life in an Institution and therefore know what a change of scene and surroundings means to such. Though I have little more I can give, please accept the enclosed ?1 note.” (From a Jobbing Gardener).
Another donor sends his son’s first Militia Pay, and a mother writes:? ” I am one of those Mothers of whom you spoke in your talk. I may be a little better off than some Mothers. I can keep my Burden at home and can take her out when it is fine and give her a holiday every year which I am not ashamed to do.”
To the B.B.C. itself, the Association owes grateful thanks for a sum of ?68 3s. 7d. contributed to the Appeal by subscribers to the Charity Good Causes Scheme.
THE HOLIDAY HOMES AND THE WAR
All the Homes?with the exception of the one at Redcar?are now being used for evacuated defectives. Some of these are children previously in attendance at Occupation Centres, others, by reason of special handicaps, are cases which it is urgently necessary should be removed from their own homes and for whom no institutional vacancies exist. The Middlesex Mental Deficiency Committee have taken all the available accommodation at Bognor and Seaford, in addition to that in new premises at Basingstoke which the Association was able to acquire through the kindness of the Sisters of the Transfiguration responsible for Mount Tabor Institution. The Rhyl Home is being used by the Lancashire Mental Hospitals Board and to the Hampshire Mental Deficiency Committee have been allocated all the vacancies at ” Torfels “, Westoil-super-Mare.
The Homes can thus be said to be performing ” National Service ” of a very essential nature by offering security and shelter to a section of the community least able to fend for itself.
C.A.M.W. Training Courses
On the outbreak of war, the C.A.M.W. was about to hold at Bristol, on behalf of the Board of Education, its Elementary Course for Teachers of Retarded Children, while active preparations were being made in readiness for the Course for Supervisors of Occupation Centres and Institution Staffs planned from October 23rd to November 11th, and for the beginning of the three months’ theoretical and specialised training which would complete the Year’s Course for Supervisors of Centres and for Home Teachers initiated in January, 1939. Part II of the Course for Medical Officers organised in cooperation with the University of London was also to have taken place during the autumn.
All these activities have had to be suspended, but meanwhile the Association will lose no opportunity that presents itself for carrying on its educational work along other lines adapted to the changed situation and the services of its Educational Psychologists are being retained in the hope that it may be possible to use them for Lectures to Women’s Institutes, etc., on practical aspects of Child Psychology and the management of difficult children, with special reference to problems of evacuation.
Lectures of use to teachers are also being planned, and the following are some of the subjects suggested for a series :? The difficult billettee?temporary and permanent factors in the refusal to adjust.
Helping in school towards home adjustment. The curative value of: (a) Play with plastic materials, (b) Destructive Play, (c) ” Make Believe”, (d) Buffoonery.
Incorporating these activities in the curriculum and in the ” two shift system “. History, geography and literary activities, both curative and ” out of doors “.
It is particularly desired by the Ministry of Information that lecture courses given in the past by educational bodies such as the C.A.M.W. should not only be maintained but, if possible, extended.
National Council for Mental Hygiene
The Council, which is carrying on its work in London as usual, has instituted a scheme for providing lectureres to address ” key ” persons in all parts of the country, and particularly in reception areas, on practical methods of dealing with psychological problems among the civil population arising out of war conditions. The Ministry of Information and other Government departments, and also the National Council of Social Service, have expressed keen interest in this service and their willingness to co-operate in the matter. The lectures would be suitable for A.R.P. workers, teachers, nurses V.A.D.s, those in charge of First Aid and Fire Posts, Billeting Officers, Women’s Institutes, Training Colleges, etc. Syllabuses of lectures have been drawn up and a Panel of Lecturers organised. It is proposed also to prepare informative leaflets and articles.
The National Council for Mental Hygiene is one of the constituent bodies of the Mental Health Emergency Committee and is actively participating in its work.
The Council hopes to continue in some form the publication of its quarterly journal ” Mental Hygiene and also its 24-hour Press service for dealing with enquiries from newspapers on psychological matters.
Tavistock Clinic
The Tavistock Clinic has had to vacate its Central London premises, but is carrying on at Westfield College (Orchard’s Wing), Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, N.W.3.
Thirty-five members of its medical staff are still available and more than half the work is being maintained, including the educational activities which are such an important part of the Clinic’s functions. The Childrens’ Department continues to see cases, although their number is, of course, greatly reduced.
Standing Conference of Voluntary Organisations in Time of War After the ” Crisis ” of September, 1938, the National Council of Social Service established a standing Conference with over 70 national organisations represented for the purpose of planning together and co-operating with the Government ” in order that the voluntary movement should play an effective part in national defence
The Conference has met regularly and has established friendly relations with the Ministry of Health to whom representations on various points arising in connection with new social p.roblems, e.g., the need for the evacuation of physically disabled and old people, the plight of invalids prematurely discharged from hospital, etc., have been made. A plan has been devised and accepted by the Lord Privy Seal, by which in each of the regional areas for Civil Defence a senior member of the war-time staff of the National Council will be constituted a Liaison Officer between the Regional Commissioner and the voluntary organisations in the district so that communications between them on matters with which they are specially concerned may be rapid and easy. This does not, of course, impede in any way, direct approach to the Commissioner by any individual organisation.
The Citizens’ Advice Bureaux initiated under the auspices of the Council and in association with national organisations concerned with personal service and relief questions, are rapidly increasing in number, which has now reached over 600, approximately 150 being in the London area. The Bureaux are undoubtedly performing a valuable piece of social service at the present time and it is clear that at periods of stress and strain they will exert a steadying influence on the community. All kinds of personal and family problems are being brought to them and they are, in addition, acting as a clearing house for many of the questions received, as well as dealing direct with others which lie outside the scope of any particular organisation.
A very useful service performed by the National Council is the periodical issue of ” Citizens’ Advice Notes ” providing particulars of new legislation, regulations and official notices, news of the war-time activities of the various social services, the progress made in the formation of Emergency Committees and Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, etc. In the current issue there is given a list of the names and addresses of the Regional Liaison Officers appointed by the Council to which reference has been made above. There is no fixed charge for these Bulletins though organisations requiring a large number of copies are asked to make a small contribution towards the cost. Applications should be addressed to the Emergency Headquarters of the Council: King’s Standing, Burton-on-Trent, Staffs.
Mental After Care Association
The Mental After Care Association report that as arranged by the Chairman and Treasurer, now both with the Forces, it has decided to carry on its present offices at Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, and has been fully justified in this decision by the large number of people who have applied for evacuation, other help and advice, due to the depression and anxiety caused by war conditions.
Owing to the fact that so many of the psychiatric clinics are closed, the immediate help and advice which it has been able to give has been especially sought and appreciated, and seems to have been a very valuable contribution towards the mental health of the applicants.
Many of those received into the homes are already showing signs of great improvement, due to the change of surroundings; and the good medical and nursing care, which they are receiving, will undoubtedly prevent a mental breakdown in a large number of cases.
The assistance of the Employment Department has also been in great request.
Arrangements have already been made to receive groups of patients on extended trial, in order to evacuate beds in the hospitals for more urgent cases.
The holidays for working patients, which were arranged for nearly fifteen hundred, were interrupted by the national emergency, but they had once again been an unqualified success. Apart from this, however, the continuity of the work remains unbroken, and is full of activity and vigour.
Child! Guidance Council
On the outbreak of War, the offices of the Child Guidance Council were removed from London to 23 Queen Square, Bath (Tel.: Bath 2390) and as soon as possible, all clinics were circularised asking for information as to their activities. The returns made show that all child guidance clinics in England and Wales, with the exception of London and Southampton, are continuing to function. Several of the London Clinics are hoping to re-open.
Efforts are being made as part of the work of the Mental Health Emergency Committee of which the Child Guidance Council is one of the component bodies, to discover the nature and extent of the problems raised by evacuated children in the receiving areas in respect of their billeting and school work, as this information would appear to be useful and necessary in attempting to employ trained personnel, or to re-organize clinic units under conditions of war.
The Council welcomes the recognition of the desirability of using staff experienced in child guidance in relation to difficult children in Receiving Areas, (Circular 1882 of the Ministry of Health, October 2nd, 1939). There is evidence that Local Authorities are finding the need for residential ” parking places ” for the ” difficult ” children in these areas, but it is hoped that such hostels will only be used for temporary residence, and that so far as possible trained workers will be employed outside these homes rather than as superintendents of them and that full use will be made of all available psychiatrists. If Circular 1882 is implemented by the Authorities, by this means valuable trained and experienced personnel now available owing to the enforced closure of some clinics may be utilised in Receiving Areas and a useful contribution to the welfare of children in a National Emergency will be made.
Financial assistance has been rendered by the Council for the running expenses of a new child guidance unit in Cambridge (where the London School of Economics Mental Health Course is being held), and for the salaries of psychiatric social workers for the activities of the Mental Health Emergency Committee.
Scottish Association for Mental Hygiene
This Association was formed under its new name when on May 28th, 1938, the Scottish Child Guidance Council and the Scottish Association for Mental Welfare amalgamated, the work being divided into three sections?Mental Health, Child Guidance and Mental Deficiency.
The first Report since the reorganisation (and the 17th since the founding of the original Association) contains notes of the work achieved in the various districts in which there are Local Committees. In 15 of these, Occupation Centres or Employment Classes have been established.
Under the auspices of the Mental Deficiency Section, a Course of Instruction for Social Workers and others engaged in the training of low grade children was planned to be held in Glasgow in October, but this has had to be abandoned owing to the war.
The Secretary of the Mental Health and Deficiency Sections of the Association is Dr Constance P. H. Hunter, 23 Eglington Crescent, Edinburgh; the Hon. Sectional Secretary of the Child Guidance Section is Dr T. Ferguson Rodger, 30 Falkland Mansions, Glasgow, W.2.
” Boarding-Out ” in Scotland
In the 25th Annual Report of the General Board of Control for Scotland* there is an interesting section on Boarding-Out which includes a general report on the system by Dr Laura M. D. Mill. Scotland is the only country in which every mental patient whose maintenance is contributed to from public funds, is under the direct supervision of the central authority, and the 1,087 ” pauper lunatics ” as well as the 1,587 defectives in private dwellings on January 1st, 1939, were all visited by the officers of the Board whose reports provide much interesting information on the system.
In his report on cases in the Glasgow district, Dr Francis Sutherland draws attention to the special problems presented by the care of defectives in large cities when suitable occupation is not provided and discusses the relative advantages of leaving them in their own homes and of placing them in carefully chosen foster families. He also draws attention to the misuse of the term ” boarding-out ” as applied to the Scottish system of domiciliary care in so far as in a considerable proportion of cases, patients are left in their own homes, and many of them have had no previous institutional training, such as in other countries is a preliminary to boarding out.
Dr McLauchlan Johnston writes of the ” noble service ” given ungrudgingly by the best stock of farmer families which receive defectives or mental cases into their care, and instances one patient of 76 who has been with his present guardian since a day 51 years ago when after an attack of insanity at the age of 22, she agreed to receive him ” for six weeks to oblige the Inspector “. He is now completely senile but has won the affection of all the members of his foster-family who know him as ” Grandpa
Another Inspector (Dr R. P. M’Broom) notes that in his experience the boarding out of insane patients ” does not provide the same difficulties as occur in the case of defectives ” and comments on the number of ” extremely disordered patients with paranoid tendencies who were apparently leading quiet, peaceful lives in comfortable homes
Ii.M. Stationery Office, York House, Kingsway, W.C.2. 1/6.
114 MENTAL WELFARE Institute for Scientific Treatment of Delinquency During September the Institute closed its register to new cases owing to the National Service commitments of the medical staff. All evening clinics also ceased, for obvious reasons. Some of the practitioners, however, have so far found it possible to continue the treatment of old patients who can attend during the day.
The Directors are now arranging for a diagnostic service to be available to the Courts, and unless (or until) the advent of air raids make conditions impossible, the Institute will continue to function at 8 Portman Place, London, W.l.
The Institute records have been, meanwhile, removed from London for safety and if necessary there will later be an emergency address from which the General Secretary will deal with correspondence.
The Second Year’s University Extension Course which was to have begun in October has unfortunately had to be cancelled, as has also the usual annual Lecture Course for Probation Officers and Social Workers.
In Defence of the Mentally Defective
In a recent number of ” The Lancet ” (2nd September) a contributor writing under the pseudonym of ” D.P.M. ” makes a spirited protest against the idea so often voiced by visitors going through the wards of a Certified Institution, that ” What you need is a lethal chamber,” or, to be more up-todate, ” What you need is a well-placed bomb.”
” The stoical attitude of most people towards the fate of mentally defective people,” he writes, “.strikes me?nowadays?as odd. At one time I shared their opinion and advocated euthanasia with the best; but that was before I had had much to do with mentally defective patients. Even after a month or two in the wards I was pretty cocksure; but little by little I found where I was wrong. The easy superiority of the eugenist deserted me, for I found that I was dealing, not with regrettable accidents, but with people?and uncommonly nice people at that.”
” After five years of their society?and the time has been .spent among low-grade defectives, idiots and imbeciles?I know that if someone presented me with a fine new lethal chamber and authority to use it, I should have extreme difficulty in choosing even one victim. On what grounds ought the choice to be made? Mere lack of intelligence seems a dangerous standard. Many high-grade defectives …. would not be noticeably deficient if placed among simple or .savage people; they would do pretty well. It seems unreasonable to say that if they had been born scions of a race of savages they would be fit to survive, but that having cropped up in a civilised country they merit death.”
“Most of them are kindly, innocent, easily contented, easily amused and willing to work endlessly at a dull job without losing interest …. on the whole they are good citizens.”
Many Medical Superintendents would endorse this view and it is one which cannot be too often emphasised.
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