Regional Community Care. I

m 1944, is shortly to come to an end, at least m its present form, we feel it may be of interest to detail the results and experiences of this work jn one region. This is felt more strongly, because many of the problems presented to the regional organization, as well as some of its solutions of these problems, are entirely different from those encountered in other forms of Psychiatric social work. The service in this region was first organized from a Nottingham office in 1946, but the present survey covers the years 1947 and 1948 ?nly, since that period represents best the gradual build-up of the regional organization once the initial teething troubles had been overcome. The region itself is a large one geographically, and includes most of the economic and social community problems commonly found in England. .There are three large industrial cities, mainly prosperous, in the region, as well as a number of smaller industrial and country towns, whilst there is a large, relatively densely populated mining area in the northwest. Almost the whole of the eastern and southern part of the region is agricultural, and characterized by small, widely-scattered villages with poor intercommunica-tions. The area includes also a small port and a number of seaside towns. As a result of this varied distribution of population, the availability of existing psychiatric services, both hospital and clinic, was patchy throughout the region. Thus, whilst the industrial areas had usually a well-organized treatment service, in many of the rural areas communication and other difficulties meant that only a very limited diagnostic clinic service was available for outpatients , and that often only at some distance.