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FEEDING DIFFICULTIES
Facilities are provided at a centre outside the borough for in-patient treatment of mothers
and babies when breast feeding difficulties are experienced or of babies with dietary problems.
No children were accommodated at the centre during the year,
HEALTH EDUCATION
Involvement by the health education staff with professional colleagues in health education
techniques is proving of enormous value in further spreading the ethos of health education.
Whereas development of the service in schools depends to a certain extent on adequate staff and
the department's flexibility in filling the gap, the trend now seems to be for health education
to be accepted as a subject in its own right.
Improved relationships with schools have further led to the use of the section workers as
counsellors, group workers, liaison workers for sccial studies and Newsom courses and advisers
for visual aids.
The health visiting service in increasing its use of the heal th educat ion staf f has greatly
improved health education display material in clinics. Help has also been offered by the
nursing officers with health education lectures other than the regular sessions in schools.
How the future of health education develops in youth clubs and other services depends. 1argely
on the conservation and distribution of time and energy the staff have available.
A handbook on home safety entitled ''Tower Hamlets Guide to Safer Living'' was produced
and made available to the public during the year.
The annual firework safety campaign was continued and it is pleasing to note that official
figures for the country show that this year 1,636 people received hospital treatment for firework
injuries compared with 2,537 in 1968.
Increasing use of visual aids necessitated the purchase of another film projector largely for
use in schools.
Other health education activities during the year took the form of entries by the staff of
the department in the Borough Carnival. The public health inspectors and pupils adopted the
theme of ''Kill that Fly'', incidentally gaining 2nd prize. The dental section portrayed their
''Dental Health Stamps Campaign'* (3rd prize), and the Home Help service's float endeavoured to
aid recruitment.
Statistics on the work of the section are given on page 94.
HEALTH VISITING
Health visitors maintain close liaison with the staff of statutory and voluntary bodies ,
general practitioners and hospitals in the borough. Their visits to expectant mothers andto
children under five years of age are shown with other statistics on page 95 . Heal th education
work is carried out by means of personal contact as well as in group sessions held at the
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