View report page

The Council's male and female welfare officers continued to undertake the tracing
of contacts of patients, details of whom had been provided by hospitals, by medical
services of the British, Commonwealth and United States Armed Forces, and by local
health authorities. Information of 431 contacts was received but in 309 instances there
was insufficient information for following-up. Of the remaining 122 cases, 64 were
traced of whom 36 were successfully brought to treatment. The welfare officers were
also available to assist clinics in case of difficulty in following-up patients who defaulted.
The arrangements whereby the services of a full-time welfare officer are made
available for attendance at clinics at Holloway Prison and for following-up contacts and
prisoners on discharge, to which reference was made in the Reports for 1952 and 1953,
were continued during the year.
Six notifications were received from the Service authorities of demobilised men who
were under treatment or surveillance for venereal disease and these men were interviewed
with a view to persuading them to continue attendance at civilian clinics.
Recuperative holidays
The following figures show that there was a revival in demand for recuperative holidays
for school children during the year, but that recommendations for unaccompanied
children under 5 years and for adults, continued to decline.

Parties of children continued to be sent to a seaside hotel under the Council s
private hotel scheme, to the Council's recuperative holiday home at Littlehampton
and to the home administered by the Women's Voluntary Services at Aldeburgh in
respect of which the Council contributed 90 per cent. of approved expenditure. The
placing of unaccompanied children in many other recuperative holiday homes continued
satisfactorily. Applications included those relating to physically handicapped, maladjusted
and educationally sub-normal children and accommodation, although not always easy
to obtain, was found for all these children.
The scheme for placing mothers with their babies in small private homes continued
and a number of additional homes of this kind were approved for use during the year.
In most cases all the arrangements for the holidays were made direct by the Council,
but assistance was received from the Jewish Board of Guardians, the Wandsworth
Peace Memorial, the St. Henry Convalescent Fund, and from the National Association
for the Prevention of Tuberculosis (Spero Fund) in respect of tuberculous persons.
Health education
During recent years special attention has been given to the development of health
education as an essential part of the health services, and, following a review of activities
referred to in the 1952 Report, further progress was made in extending this field of the
department's activities. As in previous years, the main emphasis was placed on the
individual approach by medical and health visiting staffs, but attention was also given
to developing group instruction of mothers attending at welfare centres and to the
84