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PERSONAL HEALTH
Despite health education carried out over a number of years, the incidence
of venereal disease continues to cause anxiety.
Formal instruction on sexually-transmitted diseases is now available to all
secondary schools. This is given by the Health Education Officer and
several schools in the borough have taken advantage of this facility.
Health Advice Clinics
for the Elderly
This service was reorganised during the year. Four clinic sessions continued
to be held each month, but from September they took place at the Bowes
Road Clinic and at the new Health Centre in Forest Road. The clinics
formerly held at two other Council clinics and at the premises of the Southgate
Old People's Welfare Committee were discontinued.
Referrals are received from general practitioners, health visitors, and from
other sources. The purpose of the clinics is to provide advice to retired
persons, or those about to retire. The new type of clinic service includes
advice on health, diet, environmental aspects and pastimes, as well as a
check on vision, hearing, haemoglobin, blood glucose and weight. The
service is carried out in relation to such other local authority facilities as
chiropody.
The clinics are staffed by one of the Council's medical officers, and a health
visitor or clinic nurse. A social worker from the Welfare Department also
attends each session to advise on facilities available through the Social
Services Committee. In each case a medical report is sent to the family
doctor.
During the year, 52 persons made a total of 131 attendances.
Smokers' Clinic
It was decided this year, as an experiment, to hold a session at Central
Clinic, Plevna Road, once a week throughout the year, instead of holding,
as formerly, five courses in different clinics. Each session lasted 2 - 2½ hours
and was devoted to talks, films, group discussion and the use of the Wright
Peak Flow Meter.
Two hundred and two persons attended, an increase of 108 over the previous
year; average attendances were between two and three per person, but 48
persons attended four or more sessions. The sessions were conducted by
the Principal Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Health and the Health
Education Officer, whose enthusiasm contributed in no small measure to
the increased attendances.
Twenty-nine persons claimed to have stopped smoking while attending the
clinic. However, it will not be possible to estimate the benefits or otherwise
of holding a weekly session in one clinic throughout the year until an
analysis is made of the results of the questionnaires to be sent out the
following year.
An analysis of the results obtained in 1969 was made by means of a questionnaire
sent to the 66 men and 28 women who had attended. Twenty-one men
and ten women replied, and of these, seven men and seven women were nonsmokers
one year after attending the course.
Recuperative Care
This scheme provides holidays for persons who are recovering from illness
or operation but who do not require nursing care. Normally, application is
made by general practitioners on behalf of their patients, who make some
contribution towards the cost according to their means. Except in special
cases, the period of stay is limited to two weeks. The majority of holiday
homes used are situated on the south coast.
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