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71
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. Time is also spent in tracing
contacts named by patients and persuading them to be treated.
This work is carried out on behalf of all Inner London authorities
including those — 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.
At the end of each year the physicians in charge of the V.D.
treatment centres notify the appropriate medical officers of health
of the numbers of patients attending the centres who live in the
various boroughs. These figures should, of course, be accepted
with a fair degree of caution, since it is not unknown for a
patient to give a wrong address when he attends for treatment.
It is fair to say, however, that they do give some indication of the
numbers who seek treatment for these diseases.

Health education
Our attempts to recruit a suitably-qualified Health Education
Officer during the year again proved abortive and this has undoubtedly
restricted the amount of specialised work which could
be achieved in this field. This essential work of health teaching has
therefore been borne, most ably I would add, by the health
visitors, school nurses, and other field staff as an integral part of
their daily work. This can take the form of private consultations
with parents or children, in group discussions in centres and
schools, or in the more formal atmosphere of the planned talk
on a specific subject.
A symposium on health education, arranged by the Divisional
Officer, Mr. H. A. Kingdom, was held at Wandsworth Technical
College on 11th March, 1969. The meeting was attended by
headmasters, headmistresses and senior teachers of Wandsworth