ABSTRACT
All professions build up a technical language of their own which is then valuably used as a means of communication within the specialist group; but the boundary between a constructive use of technical jargon, and its misuse, is a narrow one. The chapter provides detailed working techniques and role of the hostel. The child psychiatrist has a much more intimate, and frequent, contact with the children than he is likely to have in (say) a remand home or a children's department reception centre to which he is consultant. In these latter situations, his work will be mainly with the staff. The other side of this same coin can be seen in the difficulty which the officials of the local authority so often have in understanding what the hostel is really doing. This is not because they are deliberately unco-operative or unconcerned: but their professional ethic, and their role and goals, are quite different.
