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67
Health surveys
During the year, the Health Department has continued to give
as much assistance as possible in surveys which have been initiated
by the Greater London Council and various independent organizations.
Details of some of those are set out below: —
Schizophrenic illness after childbirth
In 1962 the Consultant Psychiatrist at Downview and Banstead
Hospitals asked for help in assessing the long-term results of the
hospitals' treatment of this illness at their mother-and-baby unit.
The immediate results of treatment were said to very good and the
inquiry was intended to discover the later effects on the health of
the mother and of the family as a whole. For this, the hospital
required the opinion of the health visitor and it was proposed that
a member of the hospital staff should interview the mother at
yearly intervals. A report on a control family was required for
each of the patients from Downview and Banstead Hospitals.
Nine such cases were referred to this authority during the year,
seven of which were for continued follow-up and two of which
were newly referred cases.
Childhood malignancies
This survey was started in 1961 by the Department of Social
Medicine at Oxford University after publication of work on the
aetiology of leukaemia.
Owing to pressure of work, our medical staff were unable to
carry out any interviews during 1967 but in 1968 the parents of
seven children who died during 1966 and three children who died
during 1967 were interviewed, and those of ten control children.