XN000022-1972-08-03 — Page 3

-

3

-

Thursday, August 3, 1972

SIU LAM HOSPITAL ADMITS FIRST PATIENTS

The Siu Lam Hospital for the Mentally Handicapped has begun to receive

patients, and the first 25 seriously subnormal children have been admitted.

Future intake will continue to be in groups of 25 patients until the

hospital's capacity of 200 has been reached. This is expected to be at the end

of the year.

F

This phasing of admission is intended to enable both the patients and

staff to adjust themselves to the new environment. The position will be reviewed

at the end of the year, and the hospital has been planned in such a way that

there will be no difficulty expanding it by another 100 beds, if necessary.

When Siu Lam was originally conceived in the early 1960s, following

a recommendation by Dr. L.T. Hilliard in his report on the care of mentally retarded children, it was felt that a hospital for 200 severely mentally retarded

would meet the requirements.

The Hilliard Report divided mental retardation among children into

three categories the least severe to be educated by the Education Department

în special schools; the medium grade to be trained by the Social Welfare

Department; and the severe grade, those neither fit for education nor for training.

to be the responsibility of the Medical and Health Department at Siu Lam.

To assess the degree of retardation so as to determine into which of

these categories they fall, an assessment team of representatives of the three

departments concerned has been studying cases known to it.

F

Only those regarded by the team as severely mentally retarded have been

recommended for admission to Siu Lam.

14