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Further, the removal of the Child Guidance Clinic into
the Borough has made direct personal contact much easier
between the Education and Heaith departments and the
Clinic and facilitated the case conference approach which is
so important to the welfare of the child.
The Borough Education Officer has pointed out in a
letter to the Headteachers of Primary Schools, in regard to
retarded pupils, that the next few years offer a particularly
favourable opportunity in Bexley to make a further advance
and that, "The first essential is that the earliest possible
diagnosis should be made so that the child can be assisted
in whatever way may be most appropriate to overcome his
difficulties before he becomes discouraged." In this process
the School Health Service plays an important part both in
carrying out the intelligence assessments of the children and
in advising in regard to medico-social factors affecting their
physical and emotional health.
As in previous years considerable time has been devoted
to the needs of other categories of "handicapped" children
—the blind, the deaf, the epileptic, the physically handicapped,
the maladjusted and children suffering from speech
defects. The medical supervision of such children involves a
close liaison with hospital consultants, almoners, general
practitioners, teachers, Youth Officers and many others. The
parents, also, have a decisive part to play and it is essential
that they be brought into full partnership and kept fully
informed, at all stages, of what is proposed for their children.
Their acceptance of what is often a difficult decision may
well depend on this.
Audiometric examination of all children around the age
of seven, with a view to detecting defects of hearing, is now
a routine procedure in the School Health Service and has
been facilitated by the introduction of the new transistor
apparatus which is very easily portable and can be operated
independently of an electricity supply.
Immunisation against diphtheria, poliomyelitis and
tuberculosis again took up a good deal of the time of doctors
and Health Visitors. During the past ten years there has
been a considerable increase in the number of schools in
the Borough and, with the impending opening of the new
Bexley/Erith Technical School, it is likely that the need will
arise for an increase in medical staffing to meet the additional
work entailed.
In regard to the Dental Servicc, the staffing position of
somewhat less than two whole-time Dental Surgeons was
maintained. During the past few years there has been a notable
increase in the dental inspection of schoolchildren,
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