Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Willesden]
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(3) The continuance of these Clinics and Dispensaries,
so as to be available for children up to
the age when they are entered on a school register,
i.e., the register of a Public Elementary School,
Nursery School, Creche, Day Nursery, School for
Mothers or other school.
(4) The systematic home visitation of infants
and of children not on a school register as above
defined.
The establishment of the agencies above mentioned
must be regarded as a means for the education of the
people in respect of the matters which produce ill-health and
disease.
Advice to a mother as to how to keep well during
pregnancy and how to take care of the child after it is born
is really education. It is not education in the same sense
that the subjects taught in our schools of to-day are education,
and in no way competes with them, but advice on
the lines indicated above must be personally applied and
given by individuals who have made the study of the problems
affecting health a life work, and a life work of the
highest national importance.
The inauguration of these measures means expenditure,
hut the cost will be amply repaid in the protection and consequent
improvement of the health of the mother, the saving
of child life, and the improved physical well-being of the
race. The Government realise the importance of this work,
and are prepared to pay fifty per cent. of the expenditure,
and it remains for the Council to take up its share.
The answer to the third question, "How to diminish
still further the death rates at ages over five years?" is that
all measures at present in operation for the improvement
and protection of the public health must be continued, and,
where necessary, amplified. Greater regard must be paid