[Report 1970] / School Medical Officer, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset Council
Date:
1970
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1970] / School Medical Officer, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. M. F. Bethell and Dr. A. H. Bakker comment:- 'South West Somerset The Child Guidance Service has settled into the new premises at The Mount, Taunton, where there is now a very attractive central clinic, and for the first time the team has been able to get together in the same building. The larger consulting rooms have enabled us to use toys and play therapy to a much greater degree than before. Miss Wilson, psychiatric social worker, has had a most successful group for children during the holidays and has had regular meetings for mothers. Our links with the Paediatric Department at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, remain strong. We have regular combined child guidance/paediatric clinics, and, in Bridgwater, quarterly reviews of cases in which the School Medical Officer is actively involved. Many emotional problems present with physical symptoms and it is very useful to have the opinions of colleagues On the significance of the component parts of the problems presented by our patients. We see patients' in the Paediatric Ward and sometimes admit children in acute emotional crises. A child psychiatry clinic continues to be held fortnightly at Minehead Hospital. This clinic covers a wide and scattered area including Exmoor and the Brendon Hills, and presents its own particular emotional, social and behaviour problems. There is a steady demand for appointments. Cases are referred from the School Service but the majority from the local general practitioners with whom there is close liaison. We are looking forward to working closely with the new Social Services Department, as we have always done with the Children's Department and the Mental Welfare Officers.' Dr. Mary Carter reports;- 'North West Somerset We continue to hold twelve Clinics per month at Weston-super-Mare, and I am grateful that we still have the same team members. Numbers of referrals continue to be a problem both from the point of view of available personnel and available space. We have welcomed the help of Dr. B. Irene Dennis, not only in assisting with preliminary physical examinations for some of the patients, but also in assisting in Play Therapy. Time and space for more therapy sessions are one of our greatest needs. At Glastonbury it is possible to do little more than two sessions a month. Unfortunately there is no room suitable for the acting-out types of therapy, and, as the rooms are all shared with the General Practitioners, our times at the Clinic are limited by their requirements. Nevertheless, thanks to the organi¬ sation and co-operation of the Psychiatric Social Worker and the Psychologist, a lot of work has been done at this Clinic, including psycho-therapy on a verbal level. We were sorry to say good-bye to Peter Mayhew. There is a growing co-operation between the Child Guidance Service, the Training Centres and the Yatton Hall Children's Unit of Farleigh Hospital. This is likely to increase further in the future. We also have a growing contact with the schools. Thanks to Mr. Lawrence, Head Teachers are feeling freer to telephone or visit the Clinics. And Psychiatric Social Workers and the Psychiatrist, as well as the Psychologist are meeting the teachers in the schools, although not as often as could be wished.' Dr. E. G. Ostler reports:- 'North East Somerset We were sorry to lose our Social Worker, Miss Grindley, who moved in September to work with the Welfare Services of North Devon, and we have been very grateful to Miss Hasler, who has been working part-time for us since then in the Keynsham area until we could fill our full-time Social Worker vacancy. We feel that the full team of Psychiatrist, Social Worker and Psychologist is essential if we are to give the best help to our clients, and it has been particularly difficult to help some of the young adolescents we have had referred whilst we have not had a Social Worker to work with their parents. Towards the end of the Autumn term we arranged a morning meeting with teachers from most of the primary schools which have a child attending Child Guidance Clinic. This proved very worthwhile, both to ourselves and to the teachers, and we are arranging a similar meeting for secondary school teachers in the near future.'