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material and visual aids. A school health council, composed of the school children
assisted by the staff, was inaugurated in a South London comprehensive secondary school
in the autumn. The object of the council is to enquire into the needs of the school and
the community for health, physical and mental, and into how these needs are being met.
There are great possibilities in this experiment and the outcome will be watched with
interest.
The review showed that health education in London is being developed satisfactorily
along the broad lines of the proposal approved by the Minister. The possibility of
improving existing methods and stimulating new ideas will be kept under constant
review. The only new recommendation arising out of the review related to lectures.
As already stated, talks to small groups are a valuable means of health education, but
no special effort has so far been made to stimulate a demand that undoubtedly exists,
because of the difficulty of providing speakers, although any requests have been met
wherever possible and in particular sex education talks to youth organisations have been
arranged by the employment of approved lecturers. Lectures are best given by staff
engaged in the work rather than by lecturers from outside the service, but if lecturers
are to be selected from the Council's staff the question of recompense for attendance at
evening meetings must be considered. Normally it is not possible to give equivalent
time off duty unless sessional staff are employed to take their place. The alternative is
to pay fees for talks given outside official hours and the Council has agreed to do this.
It is proposed to prepare syllabuses of health talks (with visual aids) suitable for various
audiences and to select lecturers.
Educational
activities at
maternity
and child
welfare
centres
Since 1948 the Council has continued to emphasise the part played by the maternity
and child welfare centre in attracting mothers for advice on their own health and that
of their children and for lessons on mothercraft. Centre staffs appreciate the need for
planned group instruction, and excellent efforts have been made and are being made in
spite of the limitations sometimes imposed by unsuitable premises and inadequate
equipment.
The working party (i) considered the opportunities for health education in centres and
suggested methods by which such teaching could be carried out, (ii) prepared an outline
syllabus of talks as a guide to health visitors, and (iii) recommended suitable demonstration
material and other visual aids. The outline syllabus has since been printed, copies
being distributed to divisions as a guide to health visitors and others preparing courses
of lectures. The working party's general proposals were that:
(a) Wherever possible each maternity and child welfare centre should have a
room, apart from the general waiting-room, capable of seating 10 to 20 mothers
and another room equipped with play equipment where children could be minded
apart from their mothers.
(b) Where possible centre premises might be made available in the evenings for
use as parents' clubs, the social activities being organised by the parents themselves,
with centre staff assisting on a voluntary basis, as these clubs afford an excellent
opportunity for health education.
(c) The main responsibility for health education should remain with the health
visitors, although it is useful for specialists in particular fields (e.g., midwife, domestic
science teacher, sanitary inspector) to speak or demonstrate, from time to time.
Courses in instruction and in teaching methods, including the use of the epidiascope
and film-strip projector, should be provided for health visitors, and appropriate
journals should be circulated regularly in each division.
(d) All suitable centres should prepare a scheme of health education to meet the
needs of the mothers concerned.
Divisional review of existing educational activities showed that many of the
suggestions covered by the working party's proposals had become standard practice,
although the extent varies between centres and between divisions. These include :