[Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Manchester.
- Manchester (England). Council.
- Date:
- 1947
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Manchester. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![additional psychiatric social workers. This is inevitable, however, mainly for two reasons : (1) because in the very nature of the work, each case takes a long time to investigate fully and even longer to treat ; (2) because the more widely known and appreciated its service becomes the greater the number of children referred. This year’s Annual Report by the Director of the Clinic is as follows : CHILD GUIDANCE CLINIC REPORT, 1947 The year 1947 has at last brought us into possession of No. 56 High Street on which we have so long cast covetous eyes, and the closing of the year comes with the sound of chisel and hammer making connect on between the two houses, and dust and dirt everywhere. In spite of the upset and difficulty of this, we hail it with relief and look forward to the time when we shall no longer find disconsolate workers endeavour ing to find space in which to see patients, or an exasperated patient wandering around after the worker. We have been asked this year to give an outline of the work done by the different members of the Child Guidance team, perhaps in order to make clearer the nature of the work, and the reason why it takes so long to deal with cases and, therefore, why our waiting list is still so high. Child Guidance work is essentially team work, and cannot be done satisfactorily except in this way. This is because it is impossible to deal with the child apart from his environment, as one can sometimes with an adult, since in the nature of the case he is dependent on it both in the sense of physical and economic need, and what is more important from our point of view, because of his emotional immaturity If a home or a school is bad, a child cannot say I will seek a new place to live or a new school, he can only truant or otherwise show his un¬ happiness and frustration, in neurotic symptoms or behaviour dis-l orders. Consequently, our first approaches are to the home and school and,! before we see a case, we make it a rule to visit the home and try tcJ assess the situation there. This is the job of the Psychiatric Social] Worker, and very often takes a long time. Although such visits are arranged by appointment, parents-—especially the careless or the| neurotic—do not always keep them, and a lot of time can be wasted b'y going out to the outer,parts of Wythenshawe, or Crumpsall, to find nc one at home. Sometimes people have taken refuge in having a neigh-l hour in the house, or there is an interfering grandmother, or thel mother and father, both in, may argue about the case, or it may take £1 long time to get through the superficial chat to the real family situation! Consequently, since our visits are not just to see “ the beds are airecl and the cups clean,” the definition of this job to me by one visitor of foster-homes, it is quite common only to be able to do one such visi| in one afternoon or morning session, particularly if the worker has no car, and, though many Authorities do so, Manchester has neveii realised the essential economy of providing this.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29927833_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
