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The future—Health education has in the past been concerned largely with physical
problems connected with nutrition, grooming, general care and protection from common
dangers, particularly in relation to the young and the elderly. Current problems of adolescent
promiscuity, rising incidence of venereal disease, lung cancer and smoking, immunisation,
dental health of children, accident prevention, and emotional development and
mental health spotlight the changing pattern of social needs which in turn will necessitate
a change of emphasis in health education.
Attention has been focussed recently on the subject of smoking and lung cancer, following
the publication of a report by the Royal College of Physicians of London; the problems of
achieving more effective health education in this field for children and adults are being
actively probed in co-operation with representatives of the education service and my
medical colleagues of the Home Counties.
Personal approach, to individuals or groups, has been found to produce the most hopeful
results within the limitations of the means of publicity which are available to local
authorities. In contrast with advertising appropriations of commercial enterprises, the money
spent on health education by local authorities is insignificant; the cost of production of
films, television advertising and large-scale publicity by use of poster hoardings are in the
main beyond their financial resources. Future intensification of health education activities
will necessarily depend on the amount of money allocated and the availability of trained
health educators.
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