The Strategic Deployment of the Child Psychiatrist in Preventive Psychiatry*†

Child Guidance and the General Practitioner

“…Indeed the parental reaction was reported to be excessive or disproportionate in 54 per cent of all cases, whilst in 38 per cent one or both parents were thought to be psychiatrically abnormal. These findings are clearly consistent with Eisenberg's (1961) suggestion that the indications for referral may lie less in the child himself than in the threshold for discomfort of his parent, and with the conclusion of the Buckinghamshire study that "referral to a child guidance clinic is related as much to parental reactions as to morbidity" (Shepherd et al, 1966^).…”

Children with Learning Disabilities Referred to Psychiatrists: A Follow-up Study

“…While there has been much written about the need for psychiatrists to collaborate closely with teachers in seeking to provide care for children with learning disabilities (Caplan 1955, Ministry of Education 1955, CELDIC 1970, Eisenberg 1961, the literature reveals no surveys which determine the extent and effectiveness of this collaboration. The findings of this study illustrate a point made by Morris (1964) on the need of relating data to a total population.…”

Juvenile Offenders

“…We would rather tend to regard the number of offences in our boys and the length of their delinquent behaviour prior to their referral as an index of parental tolerance or as an expression of the lack of interest and care on the part of the responsible authorities, in particular the school. Eisenberg (1961) came to a similar conclusion that the reason why one child is referred to a CGC and the other is not "may lie less in the children than in the threshold for discomfort or the diagnostic perception of his parents or his teacher". Ryle (1963) who used to refer ten times more children to CGCs than the national average, stated that in his practice "for each child referred to child guidance there are five, equally disturbed, not referred".…”