[Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council.
- East Sussex (England). County Council
- Date:
- 1949
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1949] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
21/40 page 19
![On the 4th April, 1949, the County Council’s direct payment responsibilities were transferred to the National Assistance Board, and at the beginning of September the requirements of East Sussex cases in the care of the Guardianship Society and other speci- fied voluntary agencies were taken over, leaving whole or partial responsibility still vested in the Authority in three categories of defectives :— I (a) Those who were under a whole-time contract of service and who were there- fore debarred from receiving National Assistance by the terms of Section 9 of the National Assistance Act, 1948. (b) Those whose requirements were such that a supervision element had to be allowed for in addition to the purely maintenance payments made to the foster-mothers. (c) Children under the age of 16 years whose parents were not already in regular receipt of National Assistance for the family needs. One hundred and twelve cases have been transferred to the Board, leaving 25 defectives wholly or partially maintained by the County Council. The Ministry of Health, in outlining ithe transfer scheme, put forward the suggestion that where Orders were obtained primarily ifor the purpose of giving financial aid, the Local Health Authority, if satisfied that the needs of the cases could be met by supervision, should consider submitting recommendations for discharge from Order. This suggestion will be borne in mind when Orders are due for reconsideration by the Visiting Justices. , The principle that monetary needs shall be met by one body, the National Assistance Board, is clearly a reasonable one, and should be applied in place of the casual method of bollecting odd grants from all kinds of sources which was often in force before July, 1948. ilt is a pity, therefore, that Section 9 of the National Assistance Act, referred to in (a) above, jDrevents the Board making up the wages of a defective to a reasonable subsistence level, bven when he is earning too little to live on ; as, for example, a man working on a farm iind whose rate of pay has been fixed by the Agricultural Wages Board. £ The Regional Hospital Board have not yet been able to increase the amount of accom- iftnodation available in this area to cover the needs of all defectives requiring institutional t^pare and training ; the Regional Psychiatrist at the Board’s offices found it difficult in practice to distinguish between different degrees of urgency for admission, and some form )f decentralisation of the machinery for making use of available accommodation became inevitable. The Brighton County Borough Council agreed to refer their cases to the County Council and a common waiting list is maintained at this office. In spite of the obvious 3^ iifficulties, the scheme appears to be working satisfactorily and impartially. The arrange- nent does not apply to children as the South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board ioes not yet administer any institution for mentally defective children. Seventeen cases vvere awaiting vacancies at the end of the year. Training of Mental Health Workers. When opportunity arises, it is intended that the fficers engaged in mental health work shall attend recognised courses of instruction. ]i I Care of Mental Defectives. A comparison with statistics for 1948 will show that there las been a marked increase in the number of mental defectives ascertained. At the end of [he year there were 942 known East Sussex cases, including those in institutional care, as compared with 769 mentally defective persons on the County Register at the end of 1948. The total is made up as follows :— :«> Cases “ subject to be dealt with ”: Males. Females. Total '4 In Institutions (and on licence from Institutions) .. 147 157 304 Under Guardianship (and on licence from Guardianship) .. 81 89 170 In “ Places of Safety ”. . 3 I 4 Under Statutory Supervision . . 208 153 361 Action pending . . Cases not at present “ subject to be dealt with ” but over whom 10 22 32 1 some form of voluntary supervision is maintained . . 40 31 71 • 489 453 942](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29186870_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
