76 ivEL^BOSlS A5JD THE MENTAL HEALTH SEBVICKS

How many Child Psychiatric Clinics should be contained in an
area of a million \ An important consideration here is that the number
and location of these clinics should have some relation to those of
Child Guidance Centres. The psychiatrist in charge of the s Clinic ',
or an assistant, would attend regular sessions at the " Centres ', and
would be available for help and advice to the medical services under
the Education Authority. He would also see at the ; Clinic ' children
referred through other channels than the ' Centres 9. A balance must
be found between the time spent inside and outside the ' Clinic '.
A proportion of one Child Psychiatric Clinic to three Child Guidance
Centres would seem appropriate. In an area with ten Child Guidance
Centres, three or four Child Psychiatric Clinics would then be needed.

PBESEOT A^D FUTUEE CHILD GUIDANCE SERVICES.

The proposals for the future submitted in the last two paragraphs
envisage an enormous expansion of the existing child guidance services.
There are at the time of writing about ninety-five Child Guidance Clinics
in the country. Though these may incline differently towards a medical
or an educational outlook, there does not at present exist a differentiation
as clear as is implied in the separation above proposed of the Child
Guidance Centre from the Child Psychiatric Clinic. A provision of
ten Child Guidance Centres and three or four Child Psychiatric Clinics
per million of population would involve , for the country as a whole,
the establishing of some 400 Child Guidance Centres and some 150
Child Psychiatric Clinics. It would mean multiplying the existing
clinics by about six. Such a programme calls for an enormous develop-
ment of existing training facilities for child psychiatrists and for
accessory services — a process that might take two four-year plans to
realize. I would not dare to make a proposal of such magnitude if I
did not feel that the main orientation of the mental health services of
the future should be towards prevention rather than cure, and hence
towards the needs of the child. The nation's children are its most
precious asset ; no funds spent in their interests and no trouble taken
on their behalf are misdirected.

5. Hostek for Difficult and Unstable Children.

Since the outbreak of the war there have been established by the
Ministry of Health some 225 hostels throughout the country for
difficult children. These hostels were primarily designed for evacuated
children who gave trouble to the people on whom they were billeted
or who were known to be unsuitable for billeting ; but they fulfilled
indigenous as well as emergency needs, and, to a small but increasing
extent, have been used for the reception of local as well as of immigrant
children. In July 1943 there were just over 3400 children in these
225 hostels, whereat psychiatric services were in varying degrees
available.

The Talue of these hostels has impressed all observers, and the
demand is general that in some form they be perpetuated after the
war.