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completed their district experience, and a further 9 were in training at the end of the
year.
Health Visiting
Problems experienced by families of all kinds are often brought to the health visitor,
either during her work in the welfare centres or when home visiting. Through her training,
she has special knowledge and competence to recognise deviation from the normal in any
family's circumstances, and her constant endeavour is to assist in the provision of the sound
environment children need for normal development. She aims to achieve this by giving advice
and support either herself or through other statutory and voluntary agencies, and by health
education.
Health visitors teach in Colleges for Further Education, in a number of schools, in
welfare centres, and lecture to voluntary agencies of various kinds. The "Health Education
Circles for the Elderly" were consistently well attended and talks were given on safety in
the home, the Ministry of Social Security and the help it can give to the elderly, aids to
living which the welfare department can provide, the dangers of smoking, the work of the
public health inspector. The lively discussions that follow each talk show clearly how much
mental stimulus our older citizens derive from these meetings.
Accidents in the home continue to occur, and the follow-up by health visitors of cases
of fire in the Borough increased considerably, amounting to more than five times the number
investigated during 1966. Statistics are as follows:-
1. Total number of Fires notified 85
2.(A) Number of Fatalities (Total) 8 (9.4%)
(B) Number of Fires involving fatalities 5
(C) Number of children involved 4
3.(A) Number of injuries (Total) 6
(B) Number of Fires involving injuries 3
4. Number of Fires involving oil heaters 62 (73%)
During the year health visitors took part in several surveys sponsored by other agencies,
including a "Burn Study" by Prof. Wilkinson at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond
Street; the Medical Research Council's Measles Vaccination Follow-up; and a survey on Law and
Poverty by the London School of Economics.
As many more mothers with young children are out at work, more evening visiting by
health visitors was necessary. This ensured that working wives and their children were not
deprived of the services of a health visitor and interviews with both parents could take
place.
Five student health visitors were sponsored by the Borough during 1967 and all were
successful in gaining the Health Visitor Certificate.
Liaison with general practitioners was maintained. Five health visitors were attached
to general practice, two working full-time with doctors in a group practice, and three
part-time, visiting the surgeries concerned to assist at infant welfare clinics and on a
fixed day each week for joint consultation with the doctors.
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