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HEALTH EDUCATION
Mr. R. Allen, M.A.P.H.I., M.I.H.E., Health Education Officer
The year has seen the gradual accumulation of material and equipment enabling the
section to widen the scope of its activities.
The work falls under several headings:—
(a) Giving information about the services available through the Health Department.
This involves the production and periodic amendment of a "Guide to the
Health Services", and the giving of talks on the work of the department.
(b) Arranging talks, discussions, film, film-strip and tape shows on the many ways
of preventing disease, immunisation, cervical cytology, change of habits, need
for excercise and proper diet, etc. Posters and pamphlets are distributed on all
of these subjects.
(c) Arranging in-service training for the Health Department staff".
(d) The production and distribution of a 20-page quarterly Health Bulletin (circulation
7,500), with seasonal and topical variations in the ways of achieving
health and home safety.
Mental Health Week (4th June to 10th June), was publicised by means of posters,
car-stickers, pamphlets and articles in the local press. Three shop window displays
were organised and a stand was sited in a large local multiple store. A public meeting
was held and the Council's training centres were opened to the public. Senior pupils
at several local schools were shown a film and given a talk on mental health, and
some of them were taken round a training centre.
A three-week dental campaign was carried out in collaboration with the new ILEA
Health Educator. Films were shown and talks and demonstrations given at fifteen
schools to about 3,500 children.
Many students and trainee-teachers have come to the section for help on various
projects. Every effort was made to give as much help as possible so that the teachers
of tomorrow not only recognise their important part in health education, but they
also know that co-operation can be obtained from the Health Education Section of
the department. Trainee teachers, in the long run, have a more useful influence over
the coming generation in teaching them the tenets of healthy living, and warning
them against anti-healthy habits.
During the year talks were given on home safety and a short film on the subject
was included as a filler on many other occasions.
Late in the year a technical assistant was seconded from the Environmental Health
Section and house-to-house visits were started in an area where oil-heaters are widely
used—and sometimes misused. Advice was given and a pamphlet produced by the Section
was distributed directly to householders and through the local vendors of paraffin.
Complaints by health visitors and home nurses about home hazards were also
investigated, and advice and help given.
Cervical cytology has been publicised and talks illustrated by film-strips have been
given to women's groups. These talks also dealt with the subject of self-examination
of the breast.
The Section distributes technical periodicals. Lewisham has joined with other
boroughs to provide a Local Government Annotation Service (LOGA), which is used
by the Section to obtain copies of articles requested by the staff. Technical books are
gradually being added to the small health department library, and frequent use is
made of the public library facilities in preference to the purchase of expensive text
books.
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