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SECTION 4.
There were no specific causes of sickness or invalidity calling
for special mention during the year 1924.
SECTION 5.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
The value of Maternity and Child Welfare is, nowadays, agreed
upon by all sections of the public. This work is preventive, and
deals with the preservation of maternal and infant life and the
prevention of a large number of ailments arising out of childbirth
which seriously affects the health of the individual later. The
education of the mother as to the correct method of rearing an
infant proceeds steadily but surely. This is being done through the
Infant Welfare Centres and by visits to the homes. In the past
it has been argued that the help given by the Local Authorities has
been in the direction to interfere in or lower parental responsibility.
On the contrary, personal advice and the issue of pamphlets by this
Authority have, so far from undermining parental responsibility,
assisted in the knowledge of preventing disease and the care of the
sick. Information is given also of the facilities provided by the
Local Authority for home nursing services and the removal to
hospital of cases which cannot be properly cared for at home.
The result of this teaching is governed by the extent the public
assimilate and put it into practice.
It is worthy of notice that, in connection with the development
of the Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme for the Borough, the
Bird-in-Bush Infant Welfare Centre was transferred at the end of
the year to premises at 616, Old Kent Road. It has been felt for
a long time that the accommodation at 601, Old Kent Road was
wholly unsuited for an Infant Welfare Centre, and in consequence
hindered the work, but with new and up-to-date premises the
difficulties under which the staff have worked in the past will no
longer be experienced.
With a view to the possible extension of the existing scheme
of nursing arrangements for the Borough, I was requested by the
Maternity and Child Welfare Committee in the early part of the
year to enquire into and report fully on the question.
The following report was accordingly submitted : —
The establishment of a general nursing service for the Borough of Camberwell as a
public health measure for the care of disease and the promotion of health.
The public health movement has passed, in the course of years, far beyond the
stage of its early objects, namely, the improvement of general sanitation and the
control of infectious diseases by isolation.
The increasing knowledge of the causes of disease leads us to believe that it
is possible to prevent a large number.