Co-Operation in Mental Health Administration

As an effort has been made in Oxford City to coordinate all Mental Health services under the administrative control of the Medical Officer of Health it is thought that it may be of interest to the workers in other areas to hear of the results of this experiment. The coordinating Committee set out with the idea of treating all forms of mental disability as questions of Public Health to be dealt with as far as possible in the same way as other physical disabilities. They have, therefore, endeavoured to provide the same services for the mentally ill as for the physically sick. On the preventive side there are two Clinics?the outpatient Neurological Clinic at the General Hospital for adults and the Educational Clinic for children. For observation of difficult children the Education Committee has provided a specialised school under the care of a teacher experienced in such cases. For the intellectually retarded there are backward classes in the ordinary schools, a small Special School and an Occupation Centre to which the children are sent on the advice of the doctor according to the degree of backwardness or mental defect from which they may be suffering. Hospital treatment for Voluntary and Temporary patients under the Mental Treatment Act and for Certified patients under the Lunacy Act is, of course, provided at the Mental Hospital, and for the mentally defective there are Borocourt and other Certified Institutions.