Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report on the public health of Finsbury for the year 1914
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Mothers or others in their households said to have weak
chests or whose chests are "affected."
Unnotified cases of ophthalmia neonatorum.
Cases of infectious disease, or of suspected infectious
disease, discovered in the district and retained at home.
Public health nuisances noted during home visitation and
attaching to water closets, yard gullies, and the
removal of household refuse.
Verminous tenements.
The chief use of these observations is to secure the abatement
of nuisances and the removal of defects of environment which may
react adversely upon the progress of the mother or infant. Other
obvious results are the provision of medical treatment for both,
and the recognition of missed cases of tuberculosis in the household.
Correspondence books with counterfoils are used by the health
visitors for the following purposes :—
To refer mothers, who are very poor or destitute, to the
Poor Law relieving officers.
To refer ill-fed, thin, and wasting mothers to the dinner
centres established at 128 Pentonville Road, 36 King's
Square, and 162 Lever Street.
To refer cases of cruelty to children or cases coming under
Section 12 of the Children Act, 1908, to the Inspector
of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children.
To refer unregistered foster-mothers to the L.C.C. Public
Control Department, Avenue House, 21 Northumber
land Avenue, London, W.C.
To obtain home nursing for lying-in mothers, or mothers
with babies, by referring them to the Association for
Nursing the Sick Poor, 23 Bloomsbury Square, to
district nurses, to the Churches, or to other suitable
agencies.
The notes sent in these cases are carefully drafted so as
to be terse, concise, and free from inquisitorial matter.