A Better Deal for Subnormals

The past few years have seen a greater recognition of the part that research can play in estimating the need for medical care services, in analysing the ways in which such services actually function, as distinct from the ways in which they are conventionally assumed to function, and in assessing their effects upon patients. Such operational studies have already done a great deal to deepen our understanding of the personal and social consequences of mental illness and of the implications of different types of psychiatric care. More recently, operational research has extended 'nto the field of mental subnormality, and it is hoped that a number of studies now in progress will show us much more about the strengths and weaknesses ?f our existing services for the subnormal and about the lines on which they can most effectively be developed in the future.