[The Honeylands Project, Exeter: care for mentally, physically and socially handicapped children and their families].

The Children's Hospital Honeylands is taking care of some 250 mentally, physically and socially handicapped 0 to 12 years old children and their families. It provides overnight hospital accommodation for thirty, and day care facilities for up to fifty children. Services provided are specific therapy, playgroups, education and regular home-visiting for the preschool children, and residential relief for the families. There are 6000 day and 6000 night attendances a year. The support service has evolved from the children's ward of a District Hospital, located in a city of 100,000 and serving a district of 300,000. Expressed parental needs have been the source of evolutionary change. A ten-year experience has shown that early and active involvement of the parents in the therapy and planning for their child keeps the demand for permanent residential placements of handicapped children very low. There are one quarter the number of mentally handicapped children in permanent residential care in the Exeter & East Devon Health District, compared to the national average. Whether Honeylands represents a model within the National Health Service for the family orientated care of handicapped children is at present under evaluation.