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(3) Most accidents are caused among the elderly through old age and infirmity and
in the younger age groups by preoccupation or lack of foresight on the part of the
mother.
(4) The general pattern is:
Inexperience of the young;
Inattention of the adult;
Infirmity of the aged.
In the circumstances:
(a) propaganda should be directed not only towards the taking of precautions
such as the provision of fireguards and keeping dangerous articles away from children
but also towards—
(i) avoidance of the use of chairs, etc., for standing purposes particularly
by the aged;
(ii) proper care, maintenance and wrapping of hot water bottles;
(iii) the use of clothing rather than proximity to a guarded fire for keeping
warm;
(iv) the safeguarding of electric irons in use, and
(b) emphasis should be placed on the need where active toddlers are concerned
for intelligent adult supervision, and in the case of the elderly, forethought and
watchfulness, in addition to the precautions indicated in (a) above.
Health education in home safety
Training of nursing staff
Because of the heavy calls upon their time, in-service training for the school nursing
sister/health visitor service has had to be given a broad basis and the amount of time
given to any one aspect is limited. It has not been practicable to proceed with the
suggestion that a series of one-day training courses on home accident prevention should
be held for nursing staff. The need for further action has, however, been appreciated and
a number of other activities have been arranged which in part serve the same end.
The Central Council for Health Education has arranged a number of in-service
training courses for departmental staff on aspects of health education which have been
applicable to accident prevention. Representatives of the nursing staff have attended
the Central Council's summer school and the home safety session of the annual congress
of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Officers concerned with health
education in each division have visited the laboratories of the Gas Council where they
were able to see at first hand the very careful checking to which appliances are subjected
and the experimental work which is carried out on safety appliances, which is directed,
inter alia, towards the prevention of coal-gas poisoning. Information about accidents and
accident prevention in reports, journals, etc., is made widely available to staff in the field.
In one division, as has already been stated, the Council's staff have co-operated with
representatives of the Gas Board concerned to conduct a survey of gas apparatus in the
homes of elderly people. This has been of immediate usefulness and in addition of
instructive value to the staff concerned.
Talks by experienced officers have been arranged at welfare centres, for Old People's
Welfare Committees, home helps, schools and other organisations. On some occasions
speakers from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents have given talks; on
other occasions, members of the Council's staff. Such talks have been useful from the
point of view of the technique of teaching accident prevention to the Council's staff.
When health education activities of an instructional nature are carried out for departmental
staff the importance of giving facilities for the staff of district nursing associations
to participate is borne in mind where this is appropriate.
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B