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A comparison with the vital statistics for 1955 will,
therefore, show the extent of the progress which has taken
place in the intervening 50 years as a result of improvements
in environmental hygiene, in standards of living generally,
in the techniques of health education and through the introduction
of a wide range of personal health services. Yet in
spite of all this, it would be to take a superficial view to say
that the present day health of the community can be regarded
as entirely satisfactory. Considerable emphasis is, nowadays,
being placed on mental health and there is a widespread
feeling that neurosis and anxiety states are on the increase.
It is, certainly, true that a very high proportion of hospital
beds in the country as a whole is devoted to the treatment
of mental disease. There are no statistics on which to base
realistic assessment of the mental health of our community
and general impressions, even when they are the result of
careful enquiry, may not be altogether reliable. The mental
health of schoolchildren is nowadays receiving greater attention
than it did a decade ago but this may be the result,
not of an actual increase in maladjustment and behaviour
problems, but of a reorientation of medical outlook and an
increase in the ascertainment of such children. In other
words, higher levels of health are now being sought than
in days gone by.
One significant development is the widespread anD
growing use of the class of drugs known as the "chemical
tranquillizers" of which phenobarbitone is, perhaps, the best
known and which are used to reduce anxiety and tension
with a view to making life more tolerable in an age in which
it is not, always, easy to achieve that inward peace of mind
which is, undoubtedly, a pre-requisite of the health of the
individual.
On a more optimistic note, an important criterion of
the health of a community, as of an individual, is the degree
of activity which it undertakes. Judged by this standard,
the Borough acquits itself well. The official list of organisations
operating in the Borough runs into seven pages of
typescript and covers a very wide range of activities with
the cultural, social and charitable organisations much in
evidence. The cumulative work of these organisations represents
a very considerable force working for the good of
the community. Many instances could, also, be quoted in
which neighbourly help and solicitude by individuals have
made it possible for the old and infirm to remain in their
own homes in conditions of relative peace and contentment.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that never in the
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