[Report 1966] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bristol.

Bristol (England). Council.

Date:: 1966

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bristol. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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HANDICAPPED CHILDREN Much attention is being paid to the whole question of the care of handicapped children, and the type of educational provision they require. Every year more special classes are opened in order to retain educationally subnormal children in ordinary schools and at the same time give them the special attention they need. As the reports show, in the special schools increasing efforts are made to give the children plenty of outside contacts and, as the time for leaving draws near, to prepare them for life outside their sheltered environment. Plans are now being made for new school premises for both educationally subnormal and physically handi- capped children. Before the end of the year a start had been made on a major project to discover the incidence, classification, provision made for and disposal of children with multiple handicaps (see Appendix 2). Advances in the treatment of babies suffering from spina bifida have raised a problem as to the proper educational provision for these children, complicated by the doubtful prognosis in many cases, which makes it difficult to plan far ahead. Dr. Smallwood contributes an article on meningomyelocele. CONCLUSION As always, it is a pleasure to express my gratitude for the co-operation of so many with whom we work in close liaison: the Chief Education Officer and his staff, both in the office and in the schools, the hospitals and the general practitioners, and other departments of the Corporation. Not least, I wish to thank Dr. Smallwood and the staff of the health department who are responsible for the running of the school health service. R. C. WOFINDEN, Principal School Medical Officer. Central Health Clinic, Tower Hill, Bristol, 2. Telephone Bristol 26602.