Some Impressions of Mental Deficiency Work in the United States

The Commonwealth Fund of America generously invited some ten oevsons,ot whom I had the pleasure of being one) connected with the new Child Guidance Council and interested in the prevention of delinquency amongst children, to visit the States. Their main object was to investigate the work of the Child Guidance Clinics and to report how far it was desirable or necessary to establish such clinics in England, and if so, how they could best be adapted to English conditions. Under these circumstances with a very full programme for the whole of my ten weeks in the States^ but little time could be spared to other enquiries. However, I tried to find out in each place what was being done for defectives but even so it was only possible to gain a few general impressions and to give a very brief time to the Institutions X actually did. visit. But I did come back with certain definite impressions which, though I realise they would most likely have been modified by fuller investigations and enquiry yet may be of some interest to us here.