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possibility of increasing mental health work in the maternity and child welfare services,
Their report, which appears in Appendix B, page 156, was considered by the Council's
Health Committee towards the end of the year and steps are being taken to give effect
to the main recommendations of the group.
Reference is made in the section dealing with the mental health services (page 90)
to the provision of special child welfare services for backward children.
The indexes already started in each health division to provide a ready reference to Children
problem families have been developed, and meetings have continued of the divisional neglected or
standing committees consisting of the divisional medical officer, area children's officer, ill.treated in their own
divisional officer (education), divisional nursing officer, divisional administrative officer, homes
district care organiser, together with co.opted members for special purposes.
The arrangements for the protection of children against ill.treatment and neglect
were reviewed during the year, with particular emphasis on such matters as the degree
of success achieved through the co.ordination of the services ; the means by which
cases are brought to light ; the most fruitful action when difficulty is found in gaining
access to homes where neglect is suspected ; adequacy of the powers for dealing with
cases where neglect has occurred and the advantages, and comparative costs, of avoiding
the need to take children into care by the use of day nurseries, home helps, child helps,
and other health services.
The health of children in the Council's residential nurseries is supervised by medical Medical
officers of the Public Health Department. Children admitted to these homes are medically supervision at
examined by the visiting medical officer who also does routine medical examinations establishments
at intervals according to the age of the child. Where appropriate every child is immunised for children
against diphtheria, whooping cough and smallpox.
Dental inspections are made at the nurseries, usually by local dentists, and treatment
is given at the dentists' surgeries. Monthly visits are made by a psychiatrist to advise the
child care staff on the management and care of children who are, to a greater or lesser
degree, emotionally disturbed. Primarily these visits are made for the education of
staff, and children who are sufficiently disturbed to require psychiatric treatment are
referred to the local child guidance clinic. In two nurseries case conferences are used as
a means of health education for the staff. These conferences are attended by a medical
officer of the central staff, a psychiatrist, a child care inspector and the area children's
officer, as well as those members of the nursery staff who are closely associated with the
child, whose problem is presented by the psychiatrist as a basis of discussion.
There were small outbreaks of Sonne dysentery and gastro.enteritis, particularly in
two large nurseries which admit the majority of children taken into care who are under
three years of age. In one of these nurseries there was a major outbreak of food poisoning
which affected some 60 children, ten of whom became seriously ill. Minced ham served
to the children for breakfast had been contaminated with Staphylococcus Aureus from
an infected burn on the finger of the cook. The visiting medical officer called in a
consultant paediatrician and his team from the nearby hospital to assist him with the
treatment of the children, all of whom recovered within 48 hours of the onset of
symptoms.
Most of the nurseries had outbreaks of mumps and chickenpox, but the incidence
of measles and whooping cough during the year was low. There were no cases of poliomyelitis.
A number of nursery students resident in one nursery had infective hepatitis,
and gamma globulin was given to new students entering the nursery as a protective
measure. On the whole the prevention of the spread of infection did not present any
major difficulty except in the two admission nurseries where the high turnover rate, as
well as the size of the nurseries, increase the risk.
The Medical Officer of Health advises the Children's Officer on the suitability on Adoption and
medical grounds of children for adoption and boarding.out in accordance with the boarding.out
duties placed upon the Council by the Children Act, 1948.
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