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14
services with the provision of greater job satisfaction and training
experience for hospital and domiciliary midwives resulting in
greater comfort, safety and efficiency for mother and baby.
It is clear that a different set of circumstances exists with
regard to the attachment of district nurses and the Authority
has been cautious in its approach. The effective work of the home
nurse must remain in the home, and the immobility of the patients,
the frequency and length of their treatment, needs careful planning
of district nursing rounds. In a very compact general practice,
some attachment may be possible, and a pilot scheme is to be tried
out next year. Wherever possible, the services of auxiliary nurses
are used to assist in the general district work of the Authority.
The training of student nurses from hospital in community
care and the field training of students from other disciplines has
developed considerably in this section and this is particularly
brought out by the report on health visiting. At the same time,
in-service training of health visitors themselves is a continuing
task to fit them for their increased involvement in attachment
schemes. A total of thirteen Health Visitors are in various general
practitioner attachment schemes. As the policy of the Authority
is to attach the health visitor only to those practices where there
are full facilities and where the health visitor can play a fully
effective role, it is unlikely that this number will be greatly
exceeded in the future.
It will be noted that 50% of the Health Visitors' work is in
the School Health Service, and in order to show the great variety
of her work over a year, there is a detailed breakdown of these
visits at the end of the report of the Health Visitor section.
It is clear that these visits are attended by a great deal of
incidental health education. Health Education in a wider field is
dealt with in a separate section of the Report.
Mental and Social Welfare
Both these sections of the Department have contributed very
full reports of continuing progress; and it is intended to comment in
greater detail next year on progress since the inception of the new
Borough. However, I must comment on two contributions of the
Mental Health Section.
Firstly, the account of the purpose and work of Rydal Mount
Hostel is clearly set out. It presents most lucidly the way in which
the Local Authority can assist most effectively the recovery from
their illnesses of the mentally ill.
Secondly, the report refers to the investigation on drug
abuse. The booklet "Drugs in your Town" was the result of
a single-handed investigation by a member of the Health and
Welfare Committee. It stimulated national and international