Smaller

Smaller institutions, where only the trainable or educable child is kept, in the core or control of training, rather than medical staff, would be preferable.

Policy decisions should be in the hands of education experts.

A hospital atmosphere should be avoided. Private institutions tend to approximate more closely to this ideal. Cameron House at Levin has little of the hospital atmosphere about it. So it may be surmised that the need is recognised, but thwarted.

In its present form the institution is very unsatisfactory.

The moves of the Intellectually Handicapped Children's Society and the Steiner movement spring, I believe, from a dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of the system.

However I feel that in some ways students who criticise the mental health system, damage their cause. Descriptions, tinged with Gothic horror, of mental hospitals, give a distorted picture.

Change is essential, but in some functional aspects places such as Levin are satisfactory. The staff, especially the male nurses, have at their best, an admirable attitude. This is more so the more mature the staff member. Often the younger staff are inept because, I think, they are unfamiliar with the behaviour of children. It would be wise to place an age restriction on the necessary staff and to encourage married men and women making a career of this work. This calls for enlightened administration and enhanced status of staff.

Generally, the good humour and dedication of those who work with the mentally defective child under difficult conditions is admirable. The treatment may be rough and ready but is rarely cruel.

There is however an alraming tendency among some sections of the staff, as in the general community, to forget that each mentally defective child is an individual. This is apparent in the dressing of the children and the lack of care for their personal appearance. This neglect is one of the worst institutional features.