[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.

  • Cumberland (England). County Council.
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    142/222 (page 140)
    Junior Training Centres — since 1959 when a hostel came into use for boarding subnormal children from the more remote areas of the county, the two junior training centres at Whitehaven and Wigton have been able to meet the training requirements of sub- normal children throughout the county with the exception only of those with serious physical handicaps or gross behaviour disorders. The Ministry’s requirements of 0.46 places per 1,000 population has been met for some years but it is felt that the scope of train- ing can be usefully extended to include children who are very severely handicapped either mentally or physically or both and who, in consequence, are unable to participate in the stimulating activities wh’ch make up the pattern of training in the junior centres. In an effort to retain these children within the community, to provide whatever training is possible and to prevent the need for hospitalisation by affording necessary relief to the family from the continual strain of unremitting care to a very helpless child, the Council proposes to provide additional units associated with the junior training centres for those requiring “spxial care”. The present junior training centre at Whitehaven^ though providing adequate floor space, is an adapted building with inherent deficiencies which cannot be remedied on the existing site. A new and larger centre incorporating a special care unit, is nearing completion at Hensingham and should be in use by the early summer of 1965. The Wigton centre is being enlarged to achieve a more effective breakdown of the teaching units and also to provide “special care” facilities. Within a few months, there- fore, I hope to see training for subnormal children in Cumberland readily avadable throughout this rural area, carried out in modern purpose-designed buildings and extended to include those very severelv handicapped children who were thought, until a few years ago, destined only for long-term hospital care. Adult Training Centres — the accommodation whi'^h was brought into use at Meadow View House, Whitehaven, for the training of adult subnormals as a temporary measure pending the completion of a new centre at Distington, continued in use through- out the year; the number on the register rose gradually to 52 by the end of 1964. In spite of many frustrating influences principally centred in the building itself^ the experience of running a separate.