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66
Venereal Disease
Welfare Officers are employed by six of the Inner London
authorities in whose areas V.D. clinics are situated and follow-up
patients who have failed to complete treatment, with the object
of persuading them to continue with treatment. Time is also spent
in tracing contacts named by patients and persuading them to
obtain treatment. This work is carried out on behalf of all Inner
London authorities, an annual payment being made by those authorities
(of which Wandsworth is one) without any venereal disease
clinics in their areas and therefore not directly employing any
welfare officers on follow-up work.
Health Education
In my Annual Report for 1965 I dealt with this subject in some
detail. During 1966 we have continued our programme of health
education on similar lines, for basically this is an integral part of
the day-to-day work of the field staff of the Department. In
certain schools a number of talks and discussions were arranged
at the request of head teachers on various aspects of health.
One of the schools concerned was for deaf girls and at which a
mothercraft class was undertaken in close co-operation with the
domestic science teacher.
Consideration has been given to the question of appointing a
Health Educator to organize and co-ordinate the work of health
education but no appointment had been made by the end of the
year. In the meantime, we have had the advantage of the services
of the Health Educator employed by the Inner London Education
Authority who visited a number of Wandsworth schools during
the year to talk on health subjects such as smoking and lung cancer.
Tooting and Bolham Carnival Procession
The Council decided that a number of floats depicting various
aspects of the work of the departments should take part in the
procession which was held in July, and it was left for each department
to decide the topics to be represented. Two floats were
designed in the Health Department, one on the subject of vaccination
against poliomyelitis, and the other relating to atmospheric
pollution and smoke control.
Home safety—Accidents in the Home
The greatest incidence of home accidents is found among the
old and the very young. Old persons sometimes do not realise
that their mental powers are failing or that their reactions are
slowing down. On the other hand, the very young child cannot
be expected to realise the potential hazards which exist in every
home and here the child's safety could depend largely on the
awareness of parents to these dangers. Many leaflets are available
on these matters and have been in use for some time but it is