Home Conditions and Employment of Mental Defectives

I am indebted to Dr. I. G. Davies, Medical Officer of Health and Professor of Public Health, University of Leeds, for his permission to publish the following article dealing with facts relating to social conditions of mentally handicapped persons in the City. A recent survey of the occupations and home conditions of mentally defective persons in an industrial area of roughly half a million population is of interest firstly from the point of view of the changing nature of housing accommodation, secondly from the enlightened attitude of employers of labour to the employment of the mentally handicapped and, thirdly, from the advantage to the community of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1927 which empowered Local Authorities to establish Industry and Occupation Centres. The Survey represents a comparison between conditions in the year 1929 and the year, 1949.