ABSTRACT
There is at present no University Chair in Mental Subnormality in any medical school in the British Isles, and the importance attached to teaching the subject to undergraduates varies greatly according to the interest of the Professor of Psychiatry or Mental Health. However, the present Director of the Institute of Mental Subnormality in Birmingham is a consultant psychiatrist—Dr. G. B. Simon. The objects of this Institute, founded in 1972, are to promote and advance study and research into all matters relating to mental subnormality … The Institute is very active in promoting courses and seminars on a wide range of subjects related to mental subnormality for members of various professions working in the field’. The Institute for Research into Mental Retardation in London was founded in 1966 on the initiative of the Research Advisory Panel of the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, for the ‘scientific study of the causes of mental retardation; of methods of prevention; of the education and training of the mentally retarded; and to improve the care and provisions for the mentally retarded in society’. In 1973, the Institute was renamed the Institute for Research into Mental and Multiple Handicap, and is now run by mutual agreement with the Spastics Society, who have given considerable financial support. The present Executive Director of the Institute is Dr. Peter Woodford, a biochemist.
