[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham].

  • West Ham (London, England). County Borough
Date:
[1955?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    77/136 page 75
    These were admitted to the following hospitals Goodmayes 173 St.Clement's (observation ward) 19 Others 16 The age incidence of these admissions was as follows Sex 0 - 15- 25- 35- 45- 55- 65- 75 & over TOTAL Male 1 8 22 16 14 4 10 4 70 Female - 11 16 35 23 22 13 9 129 TOTAL 1 19 38 51 37 26 23 13 208 It will be noted that only 13 (6,2%) of these admissions were of persons aged 75 years or over, with a total of 36 for persons aged 65 and over. It is a tragedy causing national concern that so many people suffering from the mental enfeeblement of old age have to be admitted to mental hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go. West Ham does not appear to have suffered this experience to quite the same extent, possibly because of the excellent service given by the senile confuslonal unit at Langthome Hospital. It is also gratifying to record that of the 208 cases admitted to hospital through the Council's service, 116 (55%) were voluntary patients. Of those initially admitted unde emergency and observation Orders, 24- (12% subsequently consented to remain for voluntary treatment and the question of certification did not arise. In addition, 101 West Ham residents were admitted direct to Goodmayes Hospital as voluntary patients either through the Psychiatric Clinics or by their private doctors. It can thus be seen that of the total number of patients admitted to mental hospitals from West Ham, 78% (309) were voluntary patients, yhioh shows that more and more people are realising the benefit of early treat-men and the previous reluctance to enter a mental hospital is fast losing ground, (ii) In the remaining 63 cases (25 males and 38 females) to which the Duly Authorise Officers were called no statutory action was taken; but arrangements were made in co-opera with the general practitioner for some of these patients to attend the psychiatric clinic f investigation and treatment. (c) Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913-1938. Ascertainment. Twenty-five mental defectives (12 males and 13 females) were ascertain during the year. Of these, 15 (5 males and 10 females) were reported by the Local Education Authority (7 as being ineducable children and 8 as needing supervision] after leaving school); 3 cases (all males) came from the Courts and 7 males and 3 fsraales) from other sources. Nineteen of these cases (7 males and 12 females) were placed under Statutory Super vision and the remaining 6 (1 male and 5 females) admitted for institutional care. In addition to the ascertained defectives, 4 other cases came to the notice of the department. One was placed under friendly supervision and three were still under investigation at the er.d of the year. 75
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3