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Health education in schools has been undertaken by health visitors
and one school nurse for a number of years. Two hundred and
forty-four classes were held in schools during 1962. The classes
are kept on an easy and informal basis, the pupils being encouraged
to ask questions and take part in the discussions. Many of the
pupils who in the past have had the opportunity of participating in
these classes, now have children of their own, and frequently seek
the help of the health visitor who has seen them through their school
life.
Talks
Talks to Local Organisations by health visitors have been
requested from time to time as well as a series of lectures to the
British Red Cross Society. Also Parent-Teacher Associations extend
invitations to health visitors to speak on open discussions.
Lectures
Lectures on Social Aspects of Disease were given each term
by the Superintendent Health Visitor and the Deputy Superintendent to
student nurses at the Prince of Wales's General Hospital and the
Preliminary Training School.
Special Services Health Visitors
Families with acute problems requiring immediate and time
consuming attention are referred by the district health visitors to the
special services health visitors who, in return, hand back to their
colleagues some of the old-standing "problem" families who, although
still in need of fairly close supervision, are on the whole managing
their affairs better, as the children grow up and cause less stress
and strain on the parents.
Mental illness, low intelligence in parents with families too
large for them still remain the chief Cause of parents being unable to
manage their problems. During 1962 the reasons for referral of
new cases included mental illness in one or other parent, marital
disharmony, debts and rent arrears. In one case the mother had
an obsessional neurosis and has had to have in-patient psychiatric
treatment three times during the year. She has eight children
living and for medical and psychiatric reasons was sterilised after
the birth of her last baby, born in November. In another case a
Pakistan lawyer with a legal wife in his own country bigamously
married a high grade mentally defective Irish girl by whom he had
two children. He recently returned to his legal wife who has
meanwhile become very wealthy. This had made it necessary to
get the two children aged nine and five years happily placed for
adoption. The mother has been helped to find satisfactory residential
work in hospital. Two mothers, whose husbands are incurable
psychopaths, have started to take the contraceptive pill under careful
supervision as the usual family planning methods have proved
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