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HEALTH EDUCATION
During 1968 it was pleasing to note an increasing demand for health
education in the Borough. Unfortunately owing to financial restrictions it
was impossible to provide extra staff to meet this need and therefore, many
worth-while projects had to be curtailed. This applied particularly to proposals
to evaluate the work of the section and attempts to determine true health
education needs rather than only the desires of those for whom a service is
provided.
Health Education in Schools
Requests for assistance in health education programmes were received
from many schools and it was possible to meet the requirements of nineteen of
them. However, this could only be done by co-opting the help of a number of
health visitors to whom we are most grateful for their assistance at a time
when other demands on their services were particularly pressing. The schools
themselves were also very accommodating, not only in the provision of members
of staff to take over many of the topics previously dealt with by health
education personnel, but also in allowing some flexibility in time-tabling
to enable our staff to fit in other commitments.
The child care courses for the National Association for Maternal and
Child Welfare examination proved to be especially popular and a number of
schools are now running these themselves with only minimal assistance from
the health department. Many requests were received for a course for teachers
in the content of this examination and although this was discussed with a
representative of the Association it was not possible to organise it during
1968.
A certain amount of in-service training was carried out in the form of
a course on visual aids for teachers and a series of lectures on health education
to candidates for the Post Graduate Certificate of Education.
During February 1968 a meeting was held between the head teachers of
infant and primary schools and members of the health department. It was
agreed that in general, very few teaching sessions would be required of the
health department in these schools, but perhaps more visual aids and materials
would be made available for the teachers' use.
Talks were given in some schools to children taking Duke of Edinburgh
Award courses, and examinations for the award were carried out with other
groups.
At the request of head teachers two talks were given to meetings of
parent teachers' associations.
In-Service Training
In addition to the courses for teachers, in-service training was arranged
for health visitors and medical staffs of our own and adjoining Boroughs. One
course on paediatrics included as lecturers a number of well known consultants,
who stimulated much discussion among the large number of staff who attended.
Food Hygiene Education
Another short course on food handling was given to canteen staffs in
Messrs. Fords and subsequently requests were received for more detailed
programmes to be arranged in conjunction with Rush Green College. It was
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