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51
Smoking and Lung Cancer
There was no large publicity drive during the year, but
every opportunity was taken to lead discussions with groups of
the public, e.g.
mothercraft classes
Toddler's and Parent's Clubs
other societies and organisations
and to demonstrate new teaching aids to the staff.
Help was given with the anti¬smoking clinic - called "The
Thursday Club" run by Dr. S. MacKeith and a member of his staff,
which closed at the end of the year. New practices in health so
obviously necessary and important in the eyes of public health
officers appear to most individuals as a series of difficult and
often embarrassing choices; they demand additional effort and
some kind of break with habitual ways of living.
See also School Section of the Report, page 7.
Venereal Diseases
See School Section of the Report, page 7.
Toddlers' Clinics and Parents' Clubs
Fortnightly health education programmes in the ten Toddlers'
Clinics and three Parents' Clubs run by the Health Visitors were
based on the members' interests and the current annual statistics,
the major purpose being to involve people. As more and more
become involved, they not only become imbued with a knowledge
and understanding of a particular health problem, but they also
become effective as "health educators" in their own right to
bring such knowledge and understanding to others. An example of
group dynamics may illustrate this.
One of the Clubs has established a small dramatic group- A
friend of one member wrote a play illustrating a social problem.
Without any help from the staff the group produced the play and
gave a repeat performance to another club. This time it was
deliberately used as an educational exercise. The curtain
dropped before the final scene; the audience was divided into
four groups each led by an experienced health visitor and
suggested a possible final scene (i.e. audience participation).
The Players then enacted their own version, which was slightly
fantastic and amusing and had the virtue of reducing tension and
allowing the audience to leave in a relaxed frame of mind.
The members were so stimulated by their success that another
play of this kind was written and will shortly be produced.
Other ideas are being discussed and this form of "role playing"
nay well be educationally useful in the future.