CHILD WELFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 61, 14 March 1927, Page 10

CHILD WELFARE

JUVENILE COURTS

THE MENTALLY DEFICIENT DR. BAKEWELL'S INQUIRIES Dr. Helen Bakewell, school medical officer, Wellington, returned to New Zealand to-day by the Maunganui after fourteen months spent abroad, in order to study various aspects of child welfare. For this, purpose she was for seven months in Great Britain, the rest of her time being spent on the Continent and in the United States.

Dr. Bakewell represented the New Zealand Health Department at the Congress of the Institute of Public Health, Bristol, in June, 1926. and the Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, London, in July, where she had the opportunity of meeting many people famous in pubjie health work. Dr. Bakewell devoted special attention to the study of child psychology and to the provision made for dealing with special groups of children such as the mentally backward and feeble-minded, the psychopathic and delinquent. She took special courses in psychological medicine at the Maudsley Hospital, London, and at the Bethlehem, Hospital under Tredgold. For further practical work, she spent considerable time at the psychiatric clinic, Tavistoek square (under Dr. Alice Hutchison), to which children are sent for examination by various hospitals and social workers. FULL KNOWLEDGE ESSENTIAL. *Dr. Bakewell states that she found the work done in conjunction with : the juvenile courts'of intense interest. It is now recognised that it is impossible to judge fairly and make spitable provi»ion for children without the fullest comprehension of •their mental and physical characteristics, and without adequite knowledge of the influences to which they have been subjected during childhood. Hence, it is customary in England, in association with children's courts, to have psychological experts to whom doubtful cases can be referred f r examination and report by the Magistrate. In America, this principle is carried much farther, and it is a universal procedure for every child brought before a children's court to receive a complete physical and psychological examination. The machinery for dealing with special groups of children is very complete in America. In New York, for instance, there is aj special bureau for ungraded classes Lin charge of Miss Elizabeth OTarrell. To this are referred by children's courts, by school teachers, and by social workers generally, all children in need of special psychological study and special provision. After comprehensive study of each case, a decision is maue regarding the treatment indicated. Where necessary a, child is sent to an institution for the training of the feeble-minded or for the education and training of the young law-breaker. Much is.also done in the home by the social worker in improving the child's mental and physical environment. Dr. Bakewell visited Vineland, a largo institution for dealing with the educatable f eebl-minded. She was most favourably impressed with the Judge Baker Foundation in Boston under Dr. William Healey, which works in direct association with the Juvenile Court. WIDER DEVELOPMENT. "Though in New Zealand the need for wi.der provision for dealing with the problem-child is being recognised, much greater facilities are necessary unless we are content to lag behind other civilised countries," said Dr. Bakewell. "The establishment of special classes in schools and of the children's court are beginnings in the right direction, but the whole field is in need of much wider development." Other aspects of child welfare which Dr. Bakewell had an opportunity of studying, included the treatment of tuberculosis by direct sunlight, which she saw' under Rollier in Switzerland, the work of the Ocuvrc Grancher in Franco for protecting the children of tubercular parents, the work of the nutrition classes in America for dealing with the physically sub-normal, and the preventive treatment for diphtheria now extensively used both in England and in America.