[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council.
- Nottinghamshire County Council
- Date:
- 1952
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
139/162 page 137
![It is anticipated that the vacancy for a part-time female escort at tlie Mansfield Occupation ('entre, caused by a recent resignation on grounds of ill-health, will shortly be tilled. In the meantime, the existing staff are undertaking the additional escort duties. (c) Co-ordination with Regional Hospital Boards and Hospital Management Committees. Since 1948, the Local Health Authorit}’ have provided, free of charge, the services of their officers in undertaking the supervision of ])atients on licence or holiday from mental deliciency institutions, and in the preparation of the various reports on home conditions required in ccmnection with the re-consideration of Orders or with applications for discharge, licence, or holiday leave. Medical reports have also been completed on request. With few- exceptions, co-operation wath Majiagement Committees of mental deficiency institutions and their officers has been of the closest, and it has been gratifying to find that the viexvs of the Local Health Authority have frequently been sought in matters affecting the welfare of Nottinghamshire patients. At the yiresent time man}- patients from Nottinghamshire are accommodated in institutions far remo\ ed from their homes but it is to be anticipated that this situation will no longer exist vchen adequate accommodation is ac’ailable within the Sheffield Region and that, wlien that time comes. Hospital IManagement Committees may appoint their owm Social WArkers to undertake the work now' being carried out on their behalf by the L( cal Health Authority’s officers. In m3’ submission, this w'ouid be a retrograde step as I consider it to be of the utmost importance that mv officers should miaintain some form of contact with the familv of a defective under institution care, not only from the long-term point of view’ that suc'h contact makes it easier to maintain friendl}^ relationships if and when the patient is ultimately discharged, but because experience has showm that most parents prefer to be visited b}^ the officer they have known since the case was ascertained—and tend to place greater con¬ fidence in him on that account. On the whole, I consider that existing arrangements have worked most satisfactoril}- and I should like to see them perpetuated because I am c('nvinccd that an}' change such as I haA’C envisaged w’ould have the effect of destro34ng much of the goodw'ill and close co-operation which has been achieved over the past five 3'ears^ In the field of mental illness, I ngret to report that there is still o])]a)Ttunit\' for much closer co-ordination of the hospital and communit}^ care services. With the exception of a few’ cases referred by mental hospitals in the Citv of Nottingham, the Local Health Authorit\^ has not been called upon to a.ssist to any material extent wath the after-care of patients discharged from, nor watli the supervision of patients on trial from, the Hospital normally serving the County area. This work is normally undertaken by Social Workers on the staff of the Hospital. 1 am prepared to concede that the Hospital’s own Social M orkers have the advantage of knowing the patient during his treatment and of the advice of the medical officers concerned with the case, yet I remain convinced that arrangements could be made whereby the long and extensi\’e local knowledge of nearly all the Local Health Authority’s](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29925344_0139.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
