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67
SUGGESTED FEMALE HEALTH VISITOR.
(Special Report presented to the Council on April 15th, 1907.)
In view of the Council's action in connection with the proposal
to establish, within the Borough of Lambeth, a Health
Society, I am of opinion that the only alternative scheme I
can suggest is that the Council should appoint one or more
Health Visitors to officially carry out the important work of
instructing mothers in the best way to feed and manage
their children, as the official duties of a Female Sanitary
Inspector are held by the Local Government Board not to
include health visiting. My original idea in recommending
the formation of a Health Society was my knowledge of the
need that exists throughout the Borough, and elsewhere, for
the popularising of sanitary knowledge amongst all classes,
and the educating of the people in the best way of making
use of the advantages provided by the Borough Council for
their sanitary betterment. I have long felt that much good
still remains to be done in these directions throughout the
Borough, e.g., the visiting and teaching of mothers (and
others) the simple laws of domestic hygiene, including the
proper feeding and management of infants, temperance and
thrift; the distribution of leaflets dealing with the prevention
of infantile mortality, diarrhoea, measles, whooping cough
and consumption ; and the utilising of mothers' meetings for
the dissemination of useful knowledge, etc. I am prepared to
admit that this work, which is at present carried out to a
greater or lesser extent by workers connected with different
voluntary organisations, would be more satisfactorily carried
out by official Health Visitors, acting under the Public
Health Department of the Borough Council, if the Council
are prepared to incur the expense. The idea of using existing
voluntary agencies was suggested on economic considerations.
If, however, the Council prefers to appoint
official Health Visitors under their own control, rather than
to make use of existing voluntary workers, I should welcome
the addition to the Council's Public Health staff of one
or more official Health Visitors. I would suggest the selection
for such positions of educated women, properly qualified
in nursing and sanitary knowledge. Work could easily be
found at once for an official Health Visitor in the Borough