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Uncleanliness and scabies (Table 10)
As compared with 1958 there has been an increase in the number of children and adults treated for
scabies, lice and nits. However, the numbers treated are still small and there is no evidence of an increase
in the prevalence of these conditions in the community.
Establishments for massage and special treatment
The registration of establishment for massage and special treatment is delegated to the Borough
Council under Part XII of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1944.
During the year two new licences were issued and 25 were renewed. Exemption from licensing
was claimed in one case under the Act for a registered member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
All the applicants are suitable persons to hold licences, and their premises were found satisfactory.
Health education
In the modern community it is essential that all citizens have a knowledge of the principles of health
and are able to practise the simple rules of hygiene. This knowledge helps many people to avoid mental
and physical disorders and relieves general practitioners and hospitals of some of their heavy burdens in
dealing with the sick.
The department's health education programme is based mainly on lectures illustrated by filmstrips
and films. To ensure that the rising generation gets the best possible training in health, special attention
is paid to health education in schools, linked, as far as possible, with a hygiene or biology syllabus.
The Area Medical Officer, and members of his staff, and the Chief Public Health Inspector and
his staff give the talks in schools (Table 11). Brains trusts are held at the end of each term, which enable
the children to ask questions which have not been adequately answered during the lectures. The questions
which they put to the panel at these brains trusts show quite clearly that the children are interested in the
subject and that they are gaining much useful knowledge of health matters.
At the health clinics mothercraft classes are held, and doctors, mid wives and nurses give many
talks, some illustrated with filmstrips. These talks are most useful in helping mothers to care for themselves
and their babies. Health visitors also give more specific individual health education in the mothers' homes
during their routine visits (Table 12). Mothers' clubs held at the Kilburn and Stonebridge Health Clinics have
been successful and much appreciated. Talks were given on subjects such as health, cookery, sewing,
chiropody, home nursing and first aid.
Health workers themselves need post-graduate education. Health education films are shown and
lectures given, often by outside lecturers, to separate meetings of doctors, public health inspectors, health
visitors and day nursery matrons and their deputies. The meetings are held regularly, and the interesting discussions
that follow many of them have been most valuable in keeping staff abreast with recent advances in
technique in their special subjects.
Students studying at the University of London Institute of Education for the Diploma in Health
Education visited Willesden on numerous occasions over a period of three months in order to gain practical
experience.
Talks have been given to religious, social and political organisations for a number of years, but the
extension of the habit of television viewing has affected the number of requests received by the department
and the size of the audiences at meetings. Nevertheless many talks were given to several organisations on
different subjects (Table 11) and they were well attended.
To compensate the decrease in the number of lectures given to social, religious and political organisations,
the department are arranging more talks to factory employees. The Medical Officer of Health and
his deputy give these talks during lunch-hour breaks and they were well attended and very useful (Table 11).
To improve the efficiency of the home help service, talks, together with a brains trust, were given to
home helps. The talks dealt with hygiene in the home, diet and shopping, care of the sick, care of mothers
and children, accidents and emergencies.
The Chairman and members of the Home Safety Committee and health visitors gave talks on
Accidents in the Home to religious and social organisations (see page 22).
During the last week in May an extensive publicity campaign was carried out to publicise vaccination
against poliomyelitis. Posters were shown at shops, railway stations, clinics, libraries, police stations,
public baths, gas and electricity showrooms, churches, doctors' waiting rooms and sites in the area; notices
were published in the local press; films lasting eleven seconds were shown at cinemas; and a recorded
message was broadcast at a local dance studio during dancing sessions and classes. An exhibit was also
shown at the Willesden Show in September.
Altogether one can look back on the year with the satisfaction of knowing that more and more
people in Willesden are being enlisted in the battle against disease.
PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES
The declining incidence and mortality of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles,
whooping cough and typhoid fever in the past 50 years is a reflection mainly of improving living standards.
Better housing and better nutrition, improved ventilation and smaller families have helped to increase
resistance and reduce the possibilities of spread of infection. Health visitors and public health inspectors have
played an invaluable role in health education and in improving hygiene.
A summary of notified and confirmed cases, and deaths from various diseases for 1958 and 1959
is shown in Table 13.