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13
It is essential to direct one's efforts to several groups in the community, acquiring allies throughout
the campaign.
Firstly, councillors are key people in any health education campaign, for not only do they have to
sanction the essential expenditure, but also they are generally in close contact with the people and can therefore
help to spread knowledge and answer questions. In all campaigns, and whenever any special public health
work is planned, the chairmen of committees, such as health, area and education, are given full details;
reports are then presented to the committees, and councillors are encouraged to ask questions.
Secondly, organisations of the people, whether religious, social or political, are also of importance,
because they usually have direct or indirect access to large sections of the population. Lectures with films
and lllmstrips are given to organisations and general propaganda to the public is carried out by such means
as posters, press publicity, films and leaflets.
Thirdly, the co.operation of the staff and general practitioners is, of course of prime significance
for it is through them that many people gain their first knowledge of the work of the department. All
general practitioners in the area are circularised with an outline of the scheme. Special meetings are held
of the various sections of the staff so that each member knows what the object of the work is and the
scheme can be modified to deal with practical difficulties.
The publicity campaign for a mass radiography survey in five wards is a typical example.
Two meetings of local organisations and the press were held and were addressed by the Mayor, the
chairman of the public health committee and the medical officer of health. Leaflets, with maps on the
back to indicate the siting of the two M.M.R. units, were distributed by local political and religious organisations,
the Red Cross and the boy scouts, etc., to every house and shop in the five wards. Leaflets were
also placed at booking centres, health offices, clinics and shops. Posters were exhibited on sites and hoardings,
and a large number were also displayed in shop windows (the total number was approximately 100). Large
advertisements were displayed on six sites in the borough and were also placed in each issue of the three
local newspapers for a period of three weeks. Display sets were exhibited in shop windows in prominent
places, and sets of 12 panels on mass X.ray were on view at the health clinics.
Lectures and film shows were given by the area medical officer, clinic doctors and the chest physician
to 12 secondary modern schools and 13 local organisations. Talks were also given to mothercraft classes
at clinics and parents' clubs at day nurseries. Slides were shown at two of the local cinemas, and all
medical practitioners and religious organisations in the borough were informed of the unit's visit. The
local press were very co.operative and reported the activities of the unit fully.
There were nine centres for making appointments and they included the public health department,
clinics, libraries, and public baths and a retail chemist's shop. The numbers of appointments made at the
shop were particularly good, and those at the centres were generally quite good. The Mayor officially opened
the two mass X.ray units and was X.rayed, together with the medical officer of health and the editor of a
local newspaper.
While the number of cases discovered was less than expected, the work was eminently successful in
spreading a considerable amount of knowledge on tuberculosis among the population of Willesden, who
will reap a useful harvest in the future in preventing the disease.

Mothercraft classes are held at the clinics and these have become more popular this year. Talks with
filmstrips are given by health visitors and doctors, and are very useful indeed in helping mothers to care for
themselves and their babies. Nothing gives a mother more confidence than to know that her seemingly
individual and unusual problem is shared by others, and that many mothers have found a satisfactory
solution to the same problem. Health workers also learn from these discussions how to overcome some of
the difficulties encountered in the homes. Health visitors give more specific individual health education in
the mothers' homes.
Parents' clubs are held at the nine day nurseries and they give an excellent opportunity for parents to
meet the staff and have discussions on the problems of the children for whom they are jointly responsible. It
is very difficult to obtain uniformity in handling a child if the mother and staff rarely meet each other.
General health talks and film shows are given; 41 talks and 9 film shows were given by the area medical
officer and his staff, the borough housing manager, the borough librarian, the public relations officer and
others.
Special attention is paid to the health education of school children. Every effort is made to link
health talks with the biology and science syllabus. The doctors are now welcomed by the children and the
teaching staff, and generally deal with subjects, such as the function of the brain and the kidneys, which
are difficult for the ordinary lay teacher. After one or two lectures the teacher is sufficiently confident to
give the lectures herself. The gaining of a basic knowledge of the workings of the body will help these