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young child cannot be expected to realize the potential hazards in
every home. The safety of old and young may depend largely on
how far parents and others are aware of the dangers that exist.
Safety booklets and leaflets are distributed regularly but it is often
the spoken word which proves most effective. The opportunities
for this form of health education clearly offer themselves to those
field staff who have access to people in their own homes, i.e.,
health visitors, public health inspectors, home nurses, social
workers, home helps, etc., and much unpublicized health education
in this form has gone on steadily throughout the year.
Many accidents are caused every year through failure to fit
suitable fireguards. The Council has a scheme whereby these may
be lent to the mothers of young children where the mothers cannot
afford to buy guards. During the year the Council issued 15 fireguards
under these arrangements.
It has long been felt that there is insufficient available evidence
about accidents in the home, and in an endeavour to overcome
this difficulty we adopted a scheme already in use in some other
London boroughs. A supply of forms and leaflets was sent to
hospitals and general practitioners for issue to the relatives of any
patients who had suffered an accident at home. The relative
was asked to complete the form, which was prepaid, and post it
to the Health Department. Unfortunately the response has so far
been disappointing; it appears that many relatives are not bothering
to co-operate and are thereby lessening the value of what
could be a most valuable study.
Family casework and problem families
The social workers (health services) are engaged for part of their
time in the school health service but their duties also include the
family casework relating to problem families.
All the families which were supervised during the year had
multiple difficulties which included separation of the parents,
general inadequacy, unemployment, poor health, debts, gambling
and violence. Several families are very large by present day
standards (up to 12 children) and some of the mothers have little
knowledge of the basic principles of child care. On the other hand,
some families do have a high standard of cleanliness with good
physical care of the children although many fail to understand the
emotional needs of their offspring. The mothers are frequently
depressed under the weight of their problems, some bordering on
mental illness, and are often unable to make social contacts.
Every effort is made to maintain the family as a unit and to raise
their standards sufficiently to prevent a repetition of the same
problems in the next generation.