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HEALTH EDUCATION
A Departmental Working Party of Health Visitors, School and Home Nurses,
Public Health Inspectors and other members of the staff involved in health education
at field level have met each month during the year. New posters, leaflets, films and
various visual aid items were assessed for their suitability for welfare clinics, mothers'
clubs, junior and senior schools and general publicity. A monthly programme of
special projects was formulated including food and dental hygiene, immunisation,
nutrition and home safety, supplemented by supporting publicity for national camppaigns
and the Council's special clinics. Posters and leaflets were issued to school
treatment centres, clinics, nurseries, area health offices, information centres, notice
board sites, general practitioners and pharmacists. Special teaching sessions were
arranged at individual schools and centres, for which a stock of visual aids—film
strips, flannelgraphs, wall charts, models and other equipment—was in constant
demand. During the year several demonstrations of this equipment and other facilities
offered by the section were arranged for new members of the staff.
A special sub-committee was formed during the year to consider the publication
of leaflets etc., to meet particular local needs. One of the more urgent recommendations
was for an advisory leaflet on head lice, in view of the growing incidence of this
condition amongst schoolchildren.
Smoking: Full support was given locally for the Health Education Council's Smoking
and Health Campaign, which included television "shorts" and full page advertisements
in the national press later reproduced as posters.
In a circular from the Department of Health and Social Security, published in
January, the Secretary for State announced that warning notices of the dangers to
health from smoking would be printed on all cigarette packets and advertisements and
requested local authorities to support anti-smoking publicity at local level. He also
drew attention to the dangerous risks of smoking for pregnant women. Full scale
publicity on this subject was maintained throughout the year with particular emphasis
at ante-natal clinics, mothers' clubs and schools.
Schools Summer Vacation: 1715 children attended the sessions of films and talks held
daily at five welfare clinics throughout August. This was nearly six hundred more than
in 1970. The films are carefully selected to illustrate a health or safety theme in terms
of general interest to young children and are supplemented by short talks, group exercises
and home competitions on the theme for each week. The subjects for this year's
sessions included food and dental hygiene, nutrition, vandalism, litter, safety and local
community services.
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