Volume 1

Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Mental Handicap Nursing and Care.

  • Great Britain. Committee of Enquiry into Mental Handicap Nursing and Care.
Date:
1979
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Mental Handicap Nursing and Care. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/204 (page 17)
    in a variety of Local Authority departments. In 1972 the (Briggs) Committee on Nursing recommended that “A new caring profession for the mentally handicapped should emerge gradually. In the meantime, in the training of nurses in the field of mental handicap, increased emphasis should be placed on the social aspects of care’’. (REC. 74) This proposal was the logical result of the changing attitudes to mentally handicapped people and of the belief that the majority of patients did not need hospital care but rather “chome”’ care, either in or out of hospital. A new curriculum for student (ie pre-Reg- istration) nurses, including mental handicap nurses has recently been circulat- ed for comment in Scotland. The proposed curriculum incorporates recommendations made by the Briggs Committee and in the Scottish White Paper (The Way Ahead).** Local Authority Services 1948-1978 32. While the nursing profession was coming to accept the need to match nurse training to the newly recognised needs of mentally handicapped hospital patients there was a growing recognition that more local authority services were needed. The (Younghusband) Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services (which reported in 1959)”, assumed that ‘‘a considerable expansion and development of the local au- thority mental health service must be expected’’. (Para 38). Although the working party was primarily concerned with field social workers its report noted that “‘what is abundantly clear is that a considerable residential service [for the mentally ill and handicapped] will be required. It should be staffed by officers with a real understanding of the needs of the mentally disordered, and supported by a well developed community care service”’. (Para 455). By 1968 . when the Seebohm Committee (On Local Authority and Allied Personal Social Services) reported, local authorities were providing, directly or indi- rectly (eg by using facilities provided by other local authorities or by voluntary organisations) the following specialist facilities: mental health social workers, day special schools, hostels for mentally handicapped people, boarding special schools, junior and adult training centres, and workshops and social centres for mentally disordered people. Residential accommodation was provided by local authorities as a welfare function (under Part III of the National Assistance Act) and by local health authorities (under the Mental Health Acts). In fact about 60 per cent of these (non-hospital) residential places were for elderly mentally handicapped people, so that the principle of providing life-time hostel accommodation for young amd middle aged mentally handicapped people had not yet been established. The Seebohm Committee took the view that services for mentally handicapped people suffered from duplication and lack of team work. The belief that services for mentally handicapped people should be as near normal as possible was gaining popularity and the Committee recom- mended that Junior Training Centres should be the responsibility of the local education authorities (where they were to be called special schools) who had the relevant expertise, while Adult Training Centres should be run by the proposed new social services, or social work departments. Training in the Social Services 33. While the nursing profession was developing nurse training to meet the demands of different groups of patients the personal social services were also developing staff training courses. The large voluntary organisations led by