London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington and Chelsea 1965
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington & Chelsea Borough]
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HEALTH EDUCATION TALKS AND LECTURES
Any contact between the staff of the Health and Welfare Department and the
public should be regarded as an opportunity for health education, and the attendances at
maternity and child welfare centres, the visits by home nurses, home visits by health visitors,
school medical examinations, and visits to the homes of school children by social workers or
to homes by public health inspectorsare particularly important for this purpose. Apart from
this contact with the public, a regular series of talks and discussions held mainlyat welfare
centres is also provided to supplement the opportunities taken in the course of field work.
Health visitors who carry out the greater part of this work were below strength through the
year but were very active in this field. The variety and volume of the talks is shown in the
following tables below which relate to the nine months ending 31st December, 1965:-
TABLE 1 - SPEAKERS
| Health Visitors | 595 |
| Domiciliary Midwives | 4 |
| Public Health Inspectors | 1 |
| Teachers/Instructors (1 .L.E.A.) | 15 |
| Other Lecturers from outside the Council's service | 52 |
| 667 |
TABLE II - SUBJECTS
| Care of Mothers and Young Children | 480 |
| General family health topics | 120 |
| Food Hygiene | 1 |
| Prevention of accidents | 5 |
| Other | 61 |
| 667 |
TABLE III - AUDIENCE GROUPS
| Expectant mothers | 423 |
| Mothers' clubs, etc | 162 |
| Hospital kitchen staff | 1 |
| Parent/Teacher associations | Nil |
| Schools | 81 |
| 667 |
Four regional I iaison committees were formed to act as successors to the Committee
of Medical Officers of Health for London and the Home Counties who had met regularly
prior to 1st April, 1965. The North West Metropolitan Regional Liaison Committee was
formed on 6th May, 1965, and covers this borough. The Chairman is the Medical Officer
of Health of Camden.
An off-shoot of these committees, the Hea I th Education Co-ordinati ng Committee
(London and the Home Counties), was formed in August, 1965, to deal with more comprehensive
campaigns, e.g. immunisation, and health education in general under the Chairmanship
of Dr. Galbraith, Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Newham. Theoriginal Liaison
Committee was formed early in 1961 to co-ordinate health education projects of common
interest. It arose from an increasing awareness that publicity on a number of health education
subjects could best be given by media (television, sound broadcasting, public press,
poster display, etc.) circulating general I y throughout the Greater London or even the S.E.
England area.
In fact these media now operate on acountry-wide basis, and just as they outran