[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council.

  • Surrey (England). County Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The following table expresses in group form the failings and difficulties of families. Group of Failings or Difficulties. No. of Families. Percentage of all Families. Group of Failings or Difficulties. No. of Families. Percentage of all Families. 1. Marital 212 41.7 4. Housewifery and Child 2. Material Needs 370 72.8 Care 254 50.0 3. Physical, Mental and 6. Desertion ... 62 12.2 Psychological Disorders 314 61.8 6. Delinquency 127 25.0 7. Other reasons 15 3.0 Typical combinations of failings and difficulties, expressed in group form, experienced by families were as follows :— Groups. No. of Families. Percentage of all Families. Groups. 1 No. of Families. Percentage of all Families. Nos. 2 and 3 ... 224 44.1 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 96 18.9 Nos. 2 and 4 ... 171 33.7 Nos. 1 and 4 ... 91 17.9 Nos. 3 and 4 ... 168 33.1 Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 47 9.3 Nos. 1 and 2 ... 153 30.1 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 6 1.2 Nos. 1 and 3 ... 134 26.4 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 2 0.4 The percentages in each of the three tables above add up to more than 100 because most families were included under two or more headings or groups of headings. Of these 508 families 286 were known to the Health Visitors for their districts and, in addition, 503 families not registered as problem families were the subject of special surveillance by Health Visitors. Children of Problem Families. At the end of 1966 there were 1,896 children of problem families. Some of these children were in care or in Part III accommodation as will be seen from the following table :—- Total No. of Children. In Care. In Part III Accommodation. Total in Care and Part III Accommodation. For reasons of family failure. Other reasons. For reasons of family failure. Other reasons. For all reasons. Percentage of total No. of children. 1,896 59 16 30 27 132 7.0 Rehousing. 52 registered families were rehoused during the year. Special Home Helps. During 1966, problem families received the services of special home helps amounting in all to 153 hours. In addition, 1,988 hours of service were given to other problem families by ordinary home helps. At the end of the year 5 special home helps were available for duty with problem and fading famdies. When working with these families they receive an extra 4d. per hour but at other times they are employed and paid as ordinary home helps. Family Social Service. The combined establishment of social workers for the chest clinics and for the prevention of the break-up of families was seventeen social workers and one welfare assistant—an increase during the year of one social worker for the Northern Division, and half for the North-Western Division and a half to enable the social workers to take part in the training of students on approved courses in social studies. The work of the social workers is reflected in the items on pages 18-19 and 46. Training Homes. Three problem families were admitted to Frimhurst Recuperative Home at Frimley for training and one family was admitted to Brentwood, Cheshire. Recuperative holidays were arranged for 9 families.