Memorandum on social insurance and allied services in their bearing on neurotic disorder
1943 1943 1940s 19 pages introduces the principle of merit rating with the object of giving to employers a financial incentive for diminution of accidents, and to the Government a basis on which to press for preventive measures. In general these principles are good, but unless control by the suggest...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
[1943?]
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/18EC9358-7426-4DAC-A080-93BFCB1CEF07 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9F3BB829-D22C-415C-8FC0-1A2975816E8B |
| Summary: | 1943
1943
1940s
19 pages
introduces the principle of merit rating with the object of giving to employers a financial incentive for diminution of accidents, and to the Government a basis on which to press for preventive measures. In general these principles are good, but unless control by the suggested statutory associations of employers and employees is close, abuses are liable to arise. If this levy is substantial there will be a tendency for an atmosphere of apprehension to surround the workers, and for psychiatric problems to arise among individuals showing minor degrees of industrial intoxication. There are many processes where some degree of intoxication can occur, and yet the employee can continue working in an alternative and non-toxic occupation in the same factory. Unless there is close supervision by the Ministry of Labour, unscrupulous employers will tend to discharge these individuals and poor morale will result. Apart from the control by the Ministry of Labour, Assumption B* will involve much closer medical supervision of these dangerous processes than occurs at present. It is to be hoped that emphasis will be placed on modifying the physical environment so as to render it safe, rather than on repeated overelaborate medical examinations of the workers. The latter is liable to produce both mass and individual hypochondriasis. (d) Tribunals Although no reference to the machinery is made in the Beveridge Report, pensions tribunals will presumably be established to assess all cases at the expiration of 13 weeks. Only 10 per cent. continue away from work as long as this, but even this comparatively small number involves 16,000 cases a year. Despite the marked improvements in rehabilitation facilities that are to be expected, there is no doubt that many of these cases would be complicated by psychological factors for which competent psychiatric advice will be required. Presumably the tribunals will be similar to those established by the Ministry of Pensions, and retraining in Ministry of Labour centres will, it is hoped, be compulsory. Lewis (1942) rightly stresses the futility of letting a man do trivial or absurdly easy work at a stage of his illness when his intellectual disturbance does not prevent him doing something more like the jobs of ordinary life. In some cases it will probably be necessary for residential training centres to be set up where the quantity of work can be gradually increased and where the man will be under regular psychiatric guidance. ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES. Besides the measures already broadly discussed, there is much in the day-to-day detail and arrangements of a scheme such as this which may prevent, or foster, the development of states psychiatrically undesirable. The aversion which was so strongly felt against the Poor Law in the last century derived, to a by no means negligible extent, from the atmosphere and the very buildings in which it was administered. It is important that the Labour Exchange * "Comprehensive health and rehabilitation services for prevention and cure of disease and restoration of capacity for work available to all members of the community."
292/847/2/174 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |