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APPENDIX I
Health Education.
We are proud, and I think very rightly proud, of the work
which is being carried out in Southgate in the field of Health
Education. The cost of health education in Southgate has been
infinitesimal, when compared with that of most other public
services. Although the effect which health education has had on
the occurrence of disease and, what is more important still, on the
promotion of health is difficult to gauge, I have not the slightest
doubt that our programme of health education has contributed in
no small measure to the health and well-being of Southgate.
As will be known, of course, we share the duties of health
education with the Middlesex County Council, part being carried
out by the Public Health Department and part by the staff of the
Area Health Office. This is a particularly happy example of the
benefit which accrues through the Medical Officer of Health being
Area Medical Officer for the same Area. I am able to correlate the
work, to ensure an even distribution, to make use of those officers
best qualified and best able to carry out any particular function of
health education.
The April issue of the journal "The Medical Officer" contained
a most interesting article by a Medical Officer of Health,
in which the order of preference of various sections of the community
in regard to health education was set out. The survey
showed that the most popular means of propaganda were television
programmes, closely followed by films. At the bottom of the list
—and I was not at all surprised at this—came the distribution of
pamphlets, a means of health education about which I have had
increasing doubts. I was also interested to see that, of the eleven
methods of health education listed, exhibitions came ninth on the
list. Here again, this is what one might expect, since exhibitions,
unless they deal with an urgent, topical problem, have singularly
little effect upon the public. The fact that we have used our own
sound film projector in Southgate for more than 20 years, indicates
the wisdom which prompted the Council to purchase a projector
in 1938 and to renew it six years ago, when the original machine
was completely worn out.
In concluding this brief report on health education, I would
make special mention of the great assistance afforded by the
Borough Council in promoting the display of propaganda material
relating to vaccination against poliomyelitis. Without the help of
the Borough Council, it is extremely doubtful whether we could
have obtained sufficient sites to make known the fact that vaccination
against polio was being carried out throughout the district,
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