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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
To: The Worshipful The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of Haringey
I have the honour to present the fourth Annual Report of the School Health Service for the year
1968.
In my previous report I commented on the then increasing menace of drug addiction and the
possible spread of this unpleasant trend in schools. The Head Teachers have given the problem
their continued surveillance and, apart from the information gleaned from the local press that three
young people died last year from drug addiction, there is no evidence of increasing spread. The
exact position of this undercover epidemic is always obscure but there is a reasonable hope that 1968
has seen the peak of what must have been a disaster for some young people.
The Chief Dental Officer asks "How much longer will our children be denied the benefits of
fluoridation? In what other field of preventive medicine would those in need be denied a known safe
and effective remedy?" The fluoridation of drinking water to reduce dental caries is a most
worthwhile objective for both local and central government, but in the space age our management
capacity for adding fluoride to water would appear to lag behind that of Russia and the U.S.A. Must
we have communism or make people pay the full cost for their dental treatment before we achieve
this objective?
Much of the work of the School Health Service is with handicapped children and their special
educational needs. The year should not be allowed to pass without a comment on the achievement
of four of the boys at Vale Road School for the Physically Handicapped. Three of these boys walk
with difficulty, two because they have a paralysis from poliomyelitis, and a third because of a
spastic paralysis and yet these boys have made history for the school by swimming a mile. When
the school has its own pool, to be provided by voluntary contributions, a larger number of even more
disabled children will be able to achieve a new sense of movement in water, even if it only means
movement for a few yards.
I am grateful for the support of the members of the Committee and for the enthusiasm and interest
of the staff, and especially to Dr. Mary C. Douglas, for the part they have played during the past year.
J.L. PATTON,
Principal School Medical Officer
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