Ncuis Reuieui
Hardships of going it alone Having been asked to submit evidence to the Finer Committee on One-Parent Families, the Council for Children’s Welfare decided to obtain its information at grass-roots level.
They wrote to 33 local papers across the country inviting parents who were coping single-handed to write in to them. Their main request was for information on how working parents coped with looking after their children, but comments on other problems were invited.
The first 100 letters received were analysed in detail and the findings have now been published, together with selections from the letters, in The Plight of One-Parent Families.* From the evidence of these parents, it’s pretty obvious they’re still not getting a fair deal?nor, of course, are their children.
The outstanding problem, and one which brings other problems in its wake, is poverty ? 85% of the parents mentioned money problems at great length. Going out to work can be difficult given the high cost of child-minding and the present tax system. Being forced to stay at home with small children during the day and unable to afford baby-sitters in the evenings the often already severe feelings of isolation are aggravated.
Irregular maintenance payments and the difficulty of enforcing them means further poverty, and no money for sweets, ‘treats’ or even adequate clothing swiftly isolates the children from their friends. It’s easy to see how isolation and consequent loneliness spirals.
Clearly some radical social and economic changes must be made if the plight of these parents ? and their children ? is not to get even worse. A fatherless child allowance, state guarantee of maintenance payments, better day care provisions for children ? these are just some of the suggestions to alleviate what is threatening to become a major social problem in view of the increasing number of divorces.
Available from the Council for
Children’s Welfare, 183-189 Finchley Road, London N.W.3. at 25p per copy.
Ambitious work of reference In February, Search Press published the first of a unique three-volume ‘Encyclopedia of Psychology’* ? unique because this is the first extended reference book of psychology ever published.
The encyclopedia, which is being published in seven European languages, has over 300 authors from 21 different countries. The three editors are all professors of psychology: Hans J. Eysenck, of the University of London, Wilhelm Arnold, of Wurzburg University in West Germany and Richard Meili, of Berne University, Switzerland.
Atthough the core of the book obviously deals with psychology, many terms have been included from fields which border closely on psychology such as psychiatry, sociology and education.
The encyclopedia will have the two-fold purpose of standardising terminology and information on modern psychology and of drawing attention to work being done in other countries.
Encyclopedia of Psychology; ed.
by H. J. Eysenck, W. Arnold and R. Meili; Search Press, London. Vol. I, ?8.00. (Volume II will appear in May and Volume III in August.) Fighting fit? The well-worn theory that depression and suicide rates fall dramatically in times of war, has been given a fresh boost by a recent report in the British Medical Journal from Dr H. A. Lyons, a consultant psychiatrist at Purdysburn Hospital, Belfast.
Dr Lyons found the greatest decrease in depressive, illness in Belfast was among the lower social groupings in areas where there had been the worst rioting. This confirms the theory that opportunities for overt expression of aggressive feelings prevent the build-up of frustration which can lead to depression and sometimes, ultimately, suicide.
In inner West Belfast, scene of the most violent rioting, cases of depression which, in men under 40, had averaged 16 annually in the pre-riot years of 1964-8, in 1970 fell to 6 ? a decrease of over 60%. These figures were reflected over the whole of Belfast. In 1970 the number of men suffering from depression fell from 177 to 119 ? a decrease of over 30% ? figures which compare interestingly with the overall statistics for the United Kingdom where depressive illness has increased by 75% over the last eight years.
Unfortunately other statistics are not as encouraging. As might be expected, the incidence of violent crime and homicide in Northern Ireland rose sharply after 1968 when serious rioting began. 1964-8 there were only three cases of homicide, in 1970 this had risen to 19, or 43 including ‘injuries resulting from operations of war’ and ‘legal intervention’.
Design service for the handicapped CEH, the Centre on Environment for the Handicapped has been growing steadily since its modest beginnings in 1969. Financed by grants from the Department of Health and Social Security, the King Edward’s Fund and the Spastics Society, it is now operating from the Hospital Centre at 24 Nutford Place, W1H 6AN.
CEH aims to give information and advice on the design of the full range of facilities needed by the handicapped throughout their lives ? regional and city planning, buildings and their interiors.
Initially they are concentrating on mental handicap, although they later hope to extend this to the mentally ill, the physically handicapped and the blind, deaf and elderly.
In practical terms they are offering a range of services to people working in many disciplines?architects, administrators, teachers, doctors, nurses and so on.
A reference library is available for study at the Centre, consultation on specific problems is offered and visits can be made to existing facilities to advise on improvement. They also hold meetings, seminars and conferences and publish reports.
Wide use has already been made of the CEH in its first year’s service and they are hoping to expand their activities even more in 1972. Don’t panic?hold your nose! If the sight of a spider sends you scuttling into the opposite corner try curing your fright by holding your nose. A recent report by Dr Arnold Orwin in the British Journal of Psychiatry describes how Dr Orwin’s behaviour research unit at Hollymoor Hospital in Birmingham discovered that some people could be cured of their phobias by holding their noses.
The theory behind this is that people instinctively become worried when something initially makes breathing difficult. By linking this constriction of breathing with irrational fears the research unit discovered that easing people’s breathing, eased the fear at the same time.
Treatment involves holding the patient’s nose and closing his mouth for a few seconds at a time. As the patient struggles for breath he is shown either photos or real-life examples of his phobia, and these images are removed when he is allowed to breathe again.
It all sounds too good to be true but the report says that four spiderhaters actually touched spiders after undergoing the hold-your-nose treatment.
Decent clothes and self-respect Birmingham Regional Hospital Board has just completed a two-year study which could brighten the lives of its long-stay patients ? many of them in hospitals for the mentally ill and handicapped. The Board has suggested a new clothing policy which would put an end to the present ‘quartermaster’s store’ method and the ‘institutional’ appearance of the clothing issued to patients.
Under the new system, about 20 hospital stores would be set up in main centres of the Hospital Board’s area where long-stay patients are treated. These shops, each run by a manager, would be supplied from a central warehouse and stocks would be replenished about every three weeks. In charge overall would be a specialist buyer with (presumably) up-to-the-minute knowledge of fashion trends. The patients’ requirements would be assessed at ward level.
This method would have considerable economic advantages. At the moment buying is done on a hospital group basis which is obviously more expensive since the quantities of clothing required are smaller and a less rapid turnover means that stocks cannot possibly keep up with changing fashions.
Copies of the survey have been sent to the other 14 Hospital Boards and hopefully they will follow Birmingham’s forward-looking policy.
Freedom to believe Various newspaper reports and correspondence last summer reflected concern at what appears to be a growing misuse of psychiatry in some countries of- the world. Although opinions differ as to what constitutes ‘mental health’, everyone would agree that each man should have freedom of opinion, to think according to his conscience and to form his own moral values.
It is clear that some countries are abusing psychiatric practice by forcing people to receive ‘treatment’ and confining them to psychiatric hospitals simply because their opinions are critical of the society in which they live.
At last November’s annual meeting of the World Federation for Mental Health in Hong Kong this question was discussed at great length by the Executive Board and a statement was issued to the effect that ‘the World . Federation for Mental Health resolutely opposed any such abuse of psychiatric procedures and calls on its Member Associations throughout the world promptly to investigate all such allegations, and to defend the individual’s freedom of opinion where it appears to be threatened.’
Delegates to the Hong Kong meeting have now discussed this with the UK and Eire Committee of the World Federation and representatives of the member bodies are now discussing this in their own organisations.
When the long night becomes unbearable In January this year the first ‘Nightliners’ national conference was held, attended by representatives of 22 universities. ‘Nightlines’ are student centres manned nightly by 2 or 3 volunteers.
They do not claim professional expertise ? although most centres have a preparation course for volunteers with lectures on social, psychological and sexual problems. The aim is rather to provide friendship and support wherever it is needed. They fall somewhere between friends, who may at times be unreliable, unavailable or non-existent, and the student health services with their more formal approach of appointments, desks and so on. Some callers are seeking practical advice such as how and where an abortion can be obtained, or where they can get treatment for VD. Other calls may entail the student on duty having to talk someone down from a bad LSD trip.
Sometimes the student may be referred for professional psychiatric advice and treatment, but often the caller wants to talk about one of the problems frequently encountered in university, and particularly campus life ? a broken romance (where the confines of a campus make avoidance of the ex-partner difficult), exam nerves or general worry about ‘keeping up’ academically.
Student health officers reckon that as many as 25 per cent of all students will at one time or another need some help with personal problems of one kind or another. To quote Dr Nicholas Malleson, president of the British Student Health Association, ‘The occupational diseases of students are in the head, just as those of miners are in the lungs’.
Hope for London’s problem children Children with learning and behaviour problems in four Inner London areas are to receive muchneeded help. At the end of January the Inner London Education Authority announced that it was spending ?150,000 on four pilot projects to be based in North Kensington, North Islington, Brixton and Peckham.
The plan is to have one teacher seconded full-time to each area to assess the best ways of helping the children. He or she will have strong local support in the form of help from teachers and members of the probation, medical and welfare services.
The seconded teachers will assess the children not only in their schools but in the context of their homes and general environment. This decision to examine the child’s whole environment is particularly important in view of the fact that the ILEA is now proposing to send only children with very severe problems to its special schools.
It has been increasingly clear for some time that children in areas like the four selected for the pilots are not being adequately catered for by special schools or even child guidance units. Waiting time to see a child psychiatrist can be up to three months and for a place in a special school a year or more.
Better staff/pupil ratios are improving the situation but obviously more is needed than this. Other ideas include ‘nurture groups’ where deprived children are provided with a family-type situation, language centres for immigrant children and better child guidance facilities for those with acute behaviour problems.
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