Training of Mental Welfare Officers

Training of Mental Welfare Officers for many years there has been disquiet over the anomalous position of social workers in the Mental Health Services, and the Mackintosh Committee's Report published in 1951, recommended not only that there should be more psychiatric social workers but that a large number of trained mental welfare officers were also required. These Officers employed by Local Health Authorities carry a great responsibility in that it is their decision whether patients are admitted to Observation Wards or not, and this decision can overrule the general practitioner or the psychiatrist even though it seldom does so. It is a remarkable thing and speaks volumes for the good sense of the Officers concerned that they have carried out their task so well and so long without the advantage of formal training. But this is a curious reason for suggesting that they do not need training, and most of them would welcome it. A few