Margaret Bone - Plans and Provisions for the Mentally Handicapped

Volume 4

PLANS AND PROVISIONS FOR THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED

MARGARET BONE, BERNIE SPAIN AND F. M. MARTIN

First published in 1972 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2022

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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1972 George Allen & Unwin Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-03-203381-5 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-321681-0 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-206000-2 (Volume 4) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-206008-8 (Volume 4) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-00-320021-5 (Volume 4) (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003200215

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1972. The language used is reflective of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

MARGARET BONE
BERNIE SPAIN
and
F. M. MARTIN

WITH A PREFACE BY

DR GUY WIGLEY

Deputy Medical Adviser,
Greater London Council

First published 1972

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

George Allen & Unwin Ltd 1972

ISBN 0 04 362023 X

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
in 11 point Baskerville type
by Clarke, Doble & Brendon Ltd.
Plymouth

In the course of writing, we talked to many people who were helpful to us, but in particular we should like to thank Dr Albert Kushlick who gave us much encouragement and constructive criticism. We would also like to thank Professor J. Tizard and his research staff at the Institute of Education, Dr Brian Kirman, Elspeth Stephens, Dr George Brown, Dr Joyce Leeson, Dr Gordon Rose and Mrs Winifred Curzon. Needless to say none of these people can be held responsible for any of the opinions or interpretations of data expressed here.

We always received much help from the Department of Health and Social Security (then the Ministry of Health), who generously gave us access to unpublished records and helped us with difficulties in interpreting figures. We are also extremely grateful to the fifteen Regional Hospital Boards, to all the hospitals for the mentally handicapped which co-operated in the research, particularly those in the three Regions where we undertook the ward studies, and to the Medical Officers of Health and their staffs, in the nine Boroughs which formerly comprised Middlesex, who allowed us access to the records of former Middlesex patients whose records we wished to trace.

M.B.
B.S.
F.M.M.

BY DR GUY WIGLEY

Deputy Medical Adviser, Greater London Council

This study, sponsored by the National Association for Mental Health, the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and the Spastics Society, arose from discussions following the publication of A Hospital Plan for England and Wales.

The policy paragraph in that document dealing with the number of hospital beds required for the mentally handicapped is notably weak; after weighing factors which might lead to the need for more beds against those tending to require less, the concluding sentence reads: Provisionally it has been assumed that eventually the factors mentioned above will more or less offset one another, but plans may need radical alteration in one direction or another as time time goes on. Not, one thinks, a sound statement on which plans can, with confidence, be based. Statistical studies of bed requirements are clearly needed, and it is unrealistic to look at the need for hospital beds in isolation from community provision, since many of the mentally handicapped can be cared for in either situation. Energetic development of good-quality community services must reduce the need for hospital beds. It was therefore decided to study the services for the mentally handicapped in the round and in the expectation that the enquiry would go some way to provide a firmer foundation for the planning of services.

The study was guided by a steering committee, composed of representatives of the three societies and others with a special knowledge of mentally handicapped, of which I was chairman. The field work was undertaken by two research officers, Mrs Margaret Bone, B.Sc. (Soc.), and Miss Bernie Spain, M.A., Dip. Psych. F. M. Martin, Ph.D., at that time Reader in Social Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, acted as research consultant.

This work was originally designed to take two years, but access to full record material made available by the Middle sex County Health Department justified detailed analysis of a kind which is new in this country. In the end the study took nearly three years to complete and has since then had to be put into book form.