Board of Control
The Board of Control, with the approval of the Minister of Health, have appointed Mr. Leslie B. Patrick, M.B., F.R.C.S.E., M.C.O.G., as honorary Consulting Gynaecologist in connection with diseases occurring amongst the mentally defective patients at the Rampton State Institution, Retford, Nottinghamshire.
The Board has also appointed, with the approval of the Minister of Health, Mr. James C. Anderson, M.B., F.R.C.S., as honorary Consulting Surgeon in connection with patients at the Rampton State Institution.
Mental Health Emergency Committee
Preparing for the possible approach of a catastrophe so overwhelming as another European war, must inevitably be a somewhat dispiriting activity, but by those who are directly or indirectly responsible for the welfare of children or of mentally or physically handicapped adults, it is one which cannot justifiably be shirked in the present chaotic condition of world affairs. The Mental Health Emergency Committee, which held its first meeting on January 31st, consists of representatives of the following organisations:?
Central Association for Mental Welfare Child Guidance Council National Council for Mental Hygiene Association of Mental Health Workers Association of Psychiatric Social Workers. Its Chairman is Mrs. Montagu Norman, and its Hon. Secretary is Miss Evelyn Fox. The function of the Committee, stated in general terms, is to act as a central body dealing with the carrying on of Mental Health work in time of war, and its first activity was to make representations to the Board of Control and the Ministry of Labour with a view to securing that this service should be added to the list of Reserved Occupations under the National Service Scheme.
Negotiations with the Ministry met with success, and on March 31st, in a List of Occupations issued as an addition to the original Schedule, the following category is included :?
“Salaried social worker in the Mental Health field (full time).” The Committee is now compiling a Register of Workers coming within this category, in order to ensure that their numbers and whereabouts are known and to ascertain how far the country is likely to be covered. This is considered to be of urgent importance, for under war conditions, with increasing pressure on available institutional accommodation and with the inevitable increase of cases of mental and nervous collapse amongst the civilian population, the services of such workers are likely to be in greater and greater demand. All existing forms of ” Community Care ” will have to be developed and new forms evolved. The friendly supervision and ” boarding-out” of mentally defective and ” problem children,” of ex-mental hospital patients and of patients formerly in attendance at Mental Treatment Clinics, of adolescents discharged from Mental Deficiency Institutions, and of defectives for whom no institution vacancies exist, are likely to become in every administrative area, vitally necessary services in which the co-operation of mental health workers and of general social workers everywhere will be needed.
With this need in mind, another proposal of the Committee is to set up (should emergency measures have to be put into force) a Clearing House for Information on Cases, through the medium of which it may be ensured that defectives or mentally abnormal individuals moving from one part of the country to another, may continue to be provided with supervision and that medical officers, social workers and others, in the various areas, may know to whom to apply for advice about cases which are causing them anxiety. The Committee is closely in touch with the ” Physically and Mentally Handicapped Group” of the National Council for Social Service which is considering Emergency Measures in connection with all types of handicapped people.
C.A.M.W. Short Courses, Notcutt House (London) Provided that the number of applications makes it financially possible, the C.A.M.W. will, this year as in former years, hold two Courses at Notcutt House, 35 Dorset Square, London, N.W.l.
The Courses, which will run concurrently from July 3rd to 22nd, are for workers in Occupation Centres and Certified Institutions or Home Teachers, and for Mental Deficiency Officers of Local Authorities. The curriculum includes lectures on various aspects of mental deficiency, on psychology and on the training of defectives, classes in handicrafts and musical and rhythmic training, and visits to Special Schools, Institutions and Occupation Centres.
The fee for either of these Courses is for Resident Students, ?14 2s- 6d., and for Non-Resident Students, ?6 5s. Od. These fees include in each case a Registration Fee of 5s., payable at the time of application. Further particulars may be obtained from the Educational Secretary, C.A.M.W., 24 Buckingham Palace Road, London, S.W.I.
National Special Schools Union
The 18th Conference of the National Special Schools Union is to be held in Cardiff from June 22nd to 24th, 1939. The subjects to be discussed are: Child Guidance, Nutrition, Open Air Schools, Partially Sighted Children, Deaf Children, Hospital Schools, and Ascertainment, Education and Notification of M.D. Children. The Conference will be held in the City Hall, and one evening is to be devoted to Music and Dancing to which members are invited by the Lord Mayor.
The delegate’s fee for the Conference is 10s. 6d., which includes copies of all the papers to be read. Non-members of the Union are cordially invited to attend, and the Conference Secretary, Mr. Sidney A. Luen, Gabalfa Special School, Cardiff, will be glad to send particulars to any reader of “Mental Welfare” who is interested.
European Mental Hygiene Reunion
The 6th Reunion of the European Committee of Mental Hygiene will be held at Lugano, Switzerland, from June 4th to 6th, 1939. The Swiss National Mental Hygiene Committee has decided to limit the range of discussion during this Conference to one subject only?”Mutual Understanding and Mental Hygiene,” which will be considered from various angles.
Further particulars can be obtained from the National Council for Mental Hygiene, 76-77 Chandos House, Palmer Street, Westminster, S.W.I.
Child Guidance Council’1’
We are asked by the Secretary of the Child Guidance Council to draw attention to the following forthcoming activities :? Year’s Course for Workers in Children’s Homes and Residential Schools. September, 1939.
This Course, organised by the Battersea Polytechnic in co-operation with the Child Guidance Council, will begin on 18th September, 1939, and will be open to both men and women. It will be adapted to the special needs of the individual student, and will include instruction and practical demonstrations in some, or all, of the following subjects:?
Physiology, hygiene, normal psychology and care of difficult and nervous children, home nursing and/or first aid, handicrafts and household repairs, household management, including cookery and dietetics, physical training, mothercraft, and/or catering and simple book-keeping.
It will include observation visits to Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, Nursery Schools, Play Centres, Child Guidance Clinics, and a wide variety of Homes and of Day and Residential Schools. In addition, a certain number of sessions will be devoted to actual work with children of different ages. Further particulars can be obtained from the Principal, Battersea Polytechnic, London, S.W.I 1.
Course of Lectures in Newcastle. October, 1939.
A Course of Lecture.s on Child Psychology for staffs of Children’s Homes and Residential Schools, will be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, from October 9th to 13th. Fees: ?1 10s. 0d., payable in advance. A preliminary programme may be obtained from the Secretary of the Child Guidance Council. Refresher Course for Psychiatric Social Workers. November, 1939. The Council is arranging this Course, by request, to be held in London during November. Open to Psychiatric Social Workers only.
At a Session of the Maternity and Child Welfare Conference in which the Council is co-operating, Miss E. F. Turner, Joint Registrar and Assistant Secretary, will lecture on ” The Child in Relation to the Foster Mother and the Daily Minder.” This lecture will take place at the British Medical Association House, on June 28th.
A Vacation Course on ” The Difficult Child ” was held from April 12th to 17th at Southlands Training College, London.
Child Guidance. A Developing Conception
In a paper given at the Eleventh Annual Health Education Conference held in London on January 18th and 19th, 1939, Dr J. M. Mackintosh (Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health for Scotland), surveying the subject of ” Health Education and the Local Authorities,” made some interesting references to the development of the conception of ” Child Guidance.” ” The Child Guidance movement in this country,” he said, was originally established ‘ to encourage the provision of skilled treatment for children showing behaviour disturbances and early symptom,s of nervous disease. As the movement developed, however, and various clinics became established, it was found that Child Guidance must be regarded as a part only of a much wider movement towards improving the mental health of the community. It is becoming increasingly recognised that all the agencies for promoting mental health .should work together for that object, because positive mental health is a single conception and an integral part of health education.” * Woburn House, Upper Woburn Place, London, W.C.I.
” The idea of Child Guidance has thus developed in recent years and it is becoming recognised not only as the best means of dealing with behaviour problems, but also as the most promising source of information about the handling of the day to day difficulties of the normal child.”
” It is hoped that local authorities will pay increasing attention to this aspect of education through the appointment of Educational Psychologists concerned with the treatment of children who are ill in the sense that they are in conflict with themselves. The work of the Educational Psychologists will lie for the most part within the ordinary educational srstem and the normal school population.”
” There is some danger, however, of creating a sharp division between mental health and ordinary health education, and the only way to avoid this risk is to make health education an integral part of the school curriculum and not a casual subject often dealt with in a perfunctory way. If mental health develops in isolation, there is a ri.sk of paying too great attention to the abnormal. The child who steals apples from the vicar’s orchard or gets into constant mischief in school, is not necessarily a subject for pathological investigation. But he will no doubt benefit by the careful observation of an expert, so long as this is carried out within the ordinary school system. In matters of physical health there is an increasing reliance upon expert guidance, but we have not yet reached this point in matters affecting character or behaviour.”
Occupation Centres in Johannesburg
An interesting development of the work of the South African Council for Mental Hygiene in Johannesburg, took place in 1938, when two Occupation Centres, one for boys and the other for girls, were opened.
The Centres are intended for children leaving Special Classes who need further training to equip them for employment, and the ideal aimed at is ” to give them an opportunity to become contributors towards their own support and not to exist at the expense of the state.”
The Boys’ Centre is a full-time one and has met with great success. The premises in which it is housed had been condemned as unsuitable for use as a school, but, as the Secretary of the National Council* optimistically writes: ” as a means of training our boys as handymen, nothing could be more suitable.” They are taught practical carpentry which has enabled them to repair their ramshackle quarters, and they receive many orders for articles of every kind, large and small.
The Girls’ Centre (part-time) has been less successful, as it has been difficult to keep up attendances, owing to the claims made upon the girls by their domestic responsibilities at home.
Considerable local interest was aroused at the outset in this pioneer effort and the Director of Education for the Transvaal performed the official opening. The Johannesburg Municipality made an initial grant of ?100 to help in starting the Boys’ Centre, and it was hoped that a Government Grant from the Social Welfare Department would also be forthcoming. Unfortunately, however, a general restriction of expenditure on social services due to the exigencies of the international situation, frustrated this hope, and plans for further developments have had to be temporarily abandoned.
Mrs. Netta Levine, 50 Old Post Office Buildings, Johannesburg.
Chesterfield’s Children’s Centre
On 27th April the President of the Board of Education will open at Chesterfield the Brambling House Open Air School and Children’s Centre.
Some three years ago the Borough Education Committee acquired Brambling House and fourteen acres of gardens and grounds. Since that time reconstruction work has been carried out and additions made. There are five ” chalet ” classrooms a large rest and remedial exercises room, a play therapy room and a dining room, in addition to the usual rooms for the Medical Officer, Psychiatrist, Social Worker, Psychologist, etcThe two units?the Open Air School for children who are physically below standard, and the Children’s Centre?have their own staffs and premises, but it is hoped that the work of each will react on the other. The Open Air School will open with a staff consisting of a Headmaster and four assistants, all of whom have had some psychological training and have already carried out experimental work. The grounds provide facilities far beyond the ordinary for a variety of activities and it is hoped that the smaller classes, the freer routine and these facilities will result in experiments being made with respect both to methods and the curriculum, which will have important results for all schools in the Borough and which may produce such benefits as will lessen the strain of school life for all children and cause much retardation to disappear.
The Children’s Centre will have the services of a Medical Officer, a Psychiatrist, a Psychologist and a Play Therapist when it first opens. A Psychiatric Social Worker will be appointed subsequently. The quiet of the grounds and the freedom which will be possible should aid the workers in their task. It is hoped that ultimately there will develop at Brambling House a real Children’s Centre where the various difficulties of growth, physical and mental, can be investigated and treated. It will be possible to consider the child physically, psychologically, educationally and socially at one and the same time, and the reaction of one aspect to the others will be able to be taken into account. The child is far too often split up in order that specialist adults may deal with him. It is hoped that at Brambling House he will be always considered as a unit.
The Progress of ” Q ” Camps The official designation of ” Q ” Camps is :? ” An organisation for training in a free environment on sympathetic and individual lines, young people who?mainly through environmental causes? present difficulties in social adjustment or have been in unfortunate circumstances (whether or not they are actual lawbreakers).” The present Camp?of which the 2nd Annual Report has recently been issued ?opened in May, 1936, and caters for youths between 16-| and 25. Since the Camp was opened, a total of 35 members have been admitted (excluding 2 who came for short periods only and were found unsuitable). Of these, 20 have left, the majority of whom have since kept straight; of the six who have been convicted for some offence, all left before the completion of training and against advice, except one who was mentally defective. Five of them had been convicted previously.
It is interesting to record the discovery in two Camp members of outstanding and hitherto unsuspected talent?in one case, ballet dancing?in the other, painting. In both cases, provision has been made for professional training.
The Camp continues to be primitive in so far as material conditions arc concerned, but great improvements have been made during the year, including the erection of a Bath House and the installation of a hot water supply, completed by the ” Construction Squad,” helped by the week-end visit of a working party organised by a member of the Committee. The Gardening Squad has kept the Camp supplied with vegetables, and poultry-keeping has been successfully begun.
In addition to these outdoor activities, the Camp regime includes specific tuition in various subjects such as reading and writing, shorthand and typing, and mechanical drawing. An ” Art Group ” met weekly in the village for a few wreeks, and a Poetry Group has met regularly in the Camp Chief’s house. There has been a marked growth of the community spirit during the period under review, and it is now rare to find members refusing to take their turn at orderly duties or the less popular jobs. Every member receives 2/a week pocket money, and the view held previously by a majority of members that its amount should vary as an inducement to good behaviour, has been abandoned.
An After-Care Group has been formed to give assistance to members who have left the Camp and also to help, if necessary, members who whilst still under training, have to spend some time in London for any reason. For this work, offers of help are needed in other parts of the country. The work continues to be carried on under great financial difficulties, and more subscribers are urgently neededEnquiries for further information and applications on behalf of candidates for admission should be addressed to the Hon. Secretary, Dr Marjorie Franklin, 86 Harley Street, London, W.l.
Treatment of Schizophrenia
In his Annual Report for 1938, Dr D. K. Henderson, Medical Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside, discusses the Insulin and Cardiazol Treatment of Schizophrenia and the results obtained from it during the year.
Out of SO cases treated by insulin, he reports, 5 have shown a complete remission; 8 (of whom 6 were able to return home) have shown an incomplete remission ; 11 showed a partial remission whilst under treatment, but relapsed as soon as treatment was terminated; 16 showed no improvement at all. 2 patients suffering from anxiety states and one case of depression were also unimproved.
Out of 60 cases treated by cardiazol, 9 have shown complete remission; 13 have been greatly improved, and 38 have shown no improvement. An analysis of results of a series of 133 untreated cases, shows that of these, 16 completely recovered, 23 made ” social recoveries ” (able to return home although not quite well), 26 had temporary remissions, and 64 showed no change.
In emphasising the great need for the discovery of a cure for this disorder, Dr Henderson refers to it as ” one of the great tragedies of the human race.”
Mental Treatment Act. ” Temporary ” Patients In his Report for 1938, Dr Davies-Jones, Medical Superintendent of the Isle of Wight Mental Hospital, referred to the small use that continued to be made of Section 5 of the Mental Treatment Act by which “temporary” patients may be admitted uncertified.
” The Section of the Act which deals with this type of admission,” he writes, “is too humane and logical in its implication to be lightly disregarded and in my opinion a larger number of cases where” recovery appears possible and where the patient is quite unable, for the time being, to expres,s willingness or unwillingness to enter a mental hospital, should be sent in as temporary patients and not as certified ones. It should also be borne in mind with regard to temporary patients that the Law provides for subsequent certification if that is absolutely unavoidable, though numerous alternatives exist for dealing with such cases, and certification should never be resorted to until all other avenues have been thoroughly explored.”
Monmouthshire Mental Hospital
On March 1st there was formally opened by Sir John Beynon on a site presented by him, an admission hospital and convalescent villas as an adjunct to the Monmouthshire Mental Hospital at Abergavenny.
The new buildings are designed, decorated and equipped to make them as bright and attractive as possible, with gardens, a solarium, and wide views over the beautiful surrounding country. Facilities for treatment include an X-Ray room, artificial sunlight apparatus and equipment for hydrotherapy and occupation therapy.
International Association for the Education of Exceptional Children The First International Congress held by this Association will take place in Geneva from July 24th to 28th, 1939, at the Palais Wilson.
Amongst the subjects to be discussed are the education of the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb, the Crippled, and the Delinquent, whilst one Discussion Group is to deal with ” Contributions Concerning Imbecility,” including the consideration of a survey on Swiss provision for the care of imbeciles.
Information with regard to the Conference can be obtained from the Secretary, Miss Therese Simon, Ph.D., Kantonnsschulstr. I., Zurich, Switzerland.
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