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Public health has also a very positive function in helping people towards good mental health. Much
work in their early years is needed to enable people to maintain a well-balanced personality, sufficiently integrated
to be able to withstand the stresses and strains of modern life. The fears of the expectant mother, if
not dealt with, may do untold harm to the security of the child. Children require to be managed with understanding
if they are to grow to maturity with both mental and physical strength. This is achieved by
the individual and group talks to mothers in the clinics, the education of mothers in the home by health visitors,
and, more recently, with the active support of the child guidance clinic with members of their staff, including
the psychiatrist who attends the clinics. Special attention paid to school children, by enlisting the help of
parents and teachers, and by concentrating on their difficulties at an early stage, can prevent many of them
from becoming mental wrecks or delinquents.
The environment plays an important part in preserving mental as well as physical health. A noisy,
overcrowded house, with the smells of different forms of cooking pervading the whole atmosphere, and the
need to leave home to obtain any peace and quiet, do not help to maintain mental stability.
Much work has been done in trying to reduce the tensions between tenants and owner-occupiers
sharing houses, particularly where there has been colour prejudice. These troubles are not compatible with
a sane and well-balanced attitude to one's fellowmen.
Few today can say that they are absolutely immune from a mental illness. At least one in twenty
will eventually spend some part of their lives in a mental hospital. This makes it essential that we all take
an interest in the measures for treating the mentally ill.
Modern methods of treatment in hospital have enabled people to be made fit to return to the
community, much more so than in the past. They will relapse again if the conditions in the community do
not help them in their recovery. This means that the community must be willing to accept them and provide
special facilities to help them. Unless the organisation is based on areas with an old-established community
spirit and where sufficient local interest can be aroused, schemes for helping the mentally ill cannot be entirely
successful. It is essential to draw into this work as many interested people as possible, and this can be done
only on a local basis. Then, and only then, will hostels and clubs for the mentally disordered not only be
accepted by other members of the public, but they will also actively support them.
An example of how local interest can be stimulated is given by the services for old people. Unlike
the new towns, the older towns and communities have many old people who not only have their own problems
but present many to others. As they grow older, gradually becoming separated from or losing their friends
and relatives, it is easy for them to feel lonely, sad and neglected. This is usually the start for a gradual
or rapid deterioration in their mental and physical health. To make them feel welcome and wanted we must
provide them with essential services while they retain their independence and pride, with more respect for
themselves and us.
It is important to provide them with adequate meals in dining clubs and in their homes (meals on
wheels), and to encourage the voluntary organisations to establish clubs and provide parties and entertainments.
Old people can then be given a sense of belonging to the community and they are then able to communicate
with others on an equal footing.
Many other services, some of which appear minor, are essential to preserve their health. The local
authority, together with voluntary organisations are doing sterling work in increasing and extending the
services for the aged. But what is perhaps most important, they are treating them as individuals that merit
attention and respect.
Finally, in the advance in new territories, public health is doing much to prevent accidents, particularly
in the home. A stream of propaganda has been directed to mothers in the home, to school children and
to workers in the factory. Time and time again children are scalded by the contents of a kettle pr pan, or
burned by a fire. They take poisons accidentally or they may drown even in shallow water. With the old, they
share the risks of falls in the home, with the breaking of an arm or a leg.
Most of these accidents are preventable by simple measures and a little foresight. All the timehonoured
methods of publicity are devoted to this purpose. We try and sell safety to the public through
posters, talks, films and even children's paintings.
I started to answer the question of what public health can do to-day, and as yet I have only been
able to deal briefly with the new fields of activity. We should not under-estimate the importance of continuing