Fitzroy Square (196?)

we brought Peter here because we thought that uh this new assessment unit which has just been opened could give Peter the full benefit of its services and um also he would get the best medical attention possible and we're hoping that with this uh General assessment will help him in the future um generally with his schooling and um also um as he is now 18 and a half he definitely needs some help educationally and um also medically the facilities the center has for helping people like the Robert chawes are undoubtedly impressive there are numerous playrooms chalk full of every kind of game and toy and everywhere the atmosphere is informal and relaxed it was the aim of the planners to create a real home from home and it's this which makes the center unique for the first time anywhere in the world there's a center for helping not only the child but the whole family here a dozen families at a time can come and stay for 2 or three nights as far as possible the accommodation is arranged in Suites rather like a hotel this avoids splitting the family up and throughout the stay they can get almost 36 hours of uninterrupted help and advice from the experts a family with one child can face enormous tensions even if outwardly all seems normal it's almost impossible for there to be too much encouragement help and understanding a good deal of the center's work is already based on group therapy when families arrive the parents are encouraged to discuss their problems with each other and it was after one such session for parents that I asked Mr Austin Robertshaw what he had found to be the main problems in bringing up his 8-year-old son I think the main problems have uh certainly in the initial stages were those of U Behavior difficulties um we perhaps in the earli stages didn't appreciate uh the reason for this because we were not conscious of the degree of of subnormality this uh became apparent when he first started to attend a special school and the behav avor problems there were quite pronounced at that time he was emotionally disturbed as well and it was at this stage that we realized that we had a somewhat greater problem on our hands than we had at first thought what differen has this made to your personal lives your relations as a husband and wife I mean every married couple has its ups and downs have you had more Downs than you might have done otherwise no we haven't I honestly think if anything it has uh helped to unite us um the only member of the family who has a slight difficulty at the present time largely because of her age I think is my daughter how how have you avoided the Temptation that you must have had to favor Peter uh and perhaps not neglect but not worry so much about your daughter this has been a very difficult problem and if only for the reason that Peter inevitably has needed more care and attention and we've had to try and compensate in what way we could uh towards uh his sister Valerie but this is one of the the big problems there's no doubt about that certainly in Fitzroy Square there are no long waits in drafty corridors and Hasty interviews they are out families come particularly for I mean the children particularly come um with their families because they want an opinion about the child's future future what's the best uh training schooling any sort of further thing that could be done to help and at this time is a very crucial time for the family they're very worried uh what the opinion is going to be whether there is more that can be done not only the young child that you're dealing with oh no we have um U adults come here for uh chats or for some help or assessment we have uh last week and we had six couples who were all all both couples hand or both Partners handicapped um three of them had children and they were talking about the problems of setting up in married life together and of having children coping with the little ones the children would be perfectly normal oh yes these children were were perfectly normal and they gave their fathers and mothers a bit of a time was one dad very s warmly said you know when um John Sean doesn't want me to catch catch him he takes my sticks away now you stated a very wide range of problems that you do have to tackle what are you able to do about them I mean is there in any sense a cure for a or can you only hope to improve their situation well yes uh there isn't so a cure in the sense of making it absolutely right the thing is to is to improve uh matters either medically with physiotherapy with special teaching techniqu hearing as anything that can be put in that ex needed but also the thing that we do and I'm particularly concerned with the social workers is to to take some of the pain out of it and create conditions where children and adults prosper and flourish all sorts of things can help but the main problem facing a psychiatrist like Dr Goff is to get the patient to trust him and it's the same problem for other members of the medical staff like the occupational therapist look watch Magic you watch Mom oh oh that's Johnny good isn't it problem doing out buttons and doing and this make help them to become independent you just press it together does this fit you if ever a job required infinite patience tact and understanding then surely it's this one when there's obviously sympathy and understanding but an apparently insuperable problem of simple communication yet there's no doubt that at times it can be infinitely rewarding can off you're not trying at all off the you're not trying at all are you off the push push that's it you've spent a couple of days here at the family center what's happened to Peter during that time well he he has seen the um psychologist and the doctor and the family consultant doctor and uh we have been seen by the doctors as well and we had a good um General talk about Peter's um whole um case and uh how it affects the family as a whole do you think you've learned anything that you've benefited from your stay here I'm sure that we have yes um we've we now appreciate to a greater ENT and when we first came uh here the measure of Peter's difficulties um some new light has been thrown on them of which we were not ourselves conscious and uh this enables us to see the problem more in the hole so that we have found it a great benefit there's no question about this at all well