[Report 1950] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    86/94 (page 80)
    ANNUAL REPORT 1950. CENTAL HEALTH SERVICES. (Sections 28 and 51, National Health Service Act, 1916). (1) Administration. The mental health sub-committee of the health committee consisting of seven members of the local health authority and three co-opted members of the council (one of whom is the medical superintendent of Digby’s hospital) meet quarterly. The medical officer of health is responsible for the ad- ministration of the service and is assisted by his deputy and the senior assistant medical officer of health. The non- medical staff consists of three authorised officers (2 men and 1 woman) who also act as mental health workers. The senior is designated “ mental welfare officer ” and includes in his duties those of petitioning officer under the Mental Deficiency Acts. Where a consultant's advice is necessary for a patient the medical officer of health may by arrangement with the regional hospital board call upon the services of the visiting psychiatrists of the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital and the medical superintendents of Digby and Wonford House hospitals. The council carries out the whole of the duties of the mental health services and it has not been found necessary to delegate duties to a voluntary organisation. (2) Community Mental Health Care. Section 28, National Health Service Act, 1946. Prevention, Care and After-Care. Idle local health authority is required to make provision for the prevention of mental illness and care and after-care1 of persons suffering from such illness. Considerable help is afforded by general practitioners in the city as well as other organisations (including the courts, welfare and children’s departments) who notify suspected early cases of mental ill- ness. By visiting these cases, by discussion of difficulties and by suggesting social re-adaptation, and by persuading persons requiring treatment to attend a psychiatric clinic or hospital, the mental health workers have, undoubtedly, helped some of them, and obviated the necessity of certification under the Lunacy Acts. Success in social care work depends on skill in enabling a patient to arrive himself at the solution to his difficulties. It is not by imposing a solution from without that mental health is restored. In addition to this social work, the after-care of patients