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During the year four new licences were issued and 21 were renewed. An exemption from licensing
was claimed 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, the Chief Public Health Inspector and his staff
and the Public Relations Officer 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, midwives 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). The Mothers' Club held at the Stonebridge Health Clinic has been successful
and much appreciated.
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 Health Education for the Diploma in
Health Education visited Willesden on many occasions over a period of five 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 in 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 arranged
for 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 23).
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 1960 and 1961 is
shown in Table 13.
Whooping cough
The incidence of whooping cough decreased in 1961 compared with the previous year; the case rate
per 1,000 population (.54) was only a little above that of England and Wales (.53) (Table 14).
The number of confirmed cases was less than recorded during any of the fourteen years 1948—1961
with one exception.
Dysentery
There were no outbreaks of the disease for the first time since 1951. Only 25 individual cases were
confirmed and this is the lowest figure since 1951 except for 1957 when there were 13 confirmed cases.
Poliomyelitis
There were no notified cases of poliomyelitis. This was the best year since 1951, when there were 5
notified cases but none confirmed.