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99
IX.—MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Home Visiting.
As has been explained in previous reports, the Borough is divided into seven
districts, six being allocated to the six Health Visitors employed by the Borough
Council, and one to the two Health Visitors of the Shoreditch School for Mothers.
The School for Mothers is a voluntary organisation that has done excellent work in
the Borough in close co-operation with the Town Hall for many years.
Home visiting is the mainstay of maternity and child welfare work, upon which
welfare centres and ancillary activities depend for support. The increase in the
number of Centres, however, necessitated by the steady growth of their popularity,
makes it increasingly difficult to arrange the work of the Health Visitor so that the
time available for home visiting is not unduly curtailed.
As in former years, we have been able to overcome this difficulty to some extent
owing to the generous help given at the Centres by voluntary workers, to whom
cordial thanks are tendered for their services.
On five days each week four students attend from the National Health Society.
They are instructed in the various branches of maternity and child welfare work and
are later, incidentally, most useful in the general work of the department.
At the end of the year a scheme was under consideration for engaging Probationer
Health Visitors.
The number of visits paid by the Health Visitors during the year, particulars of
which are given in the accompanying table, corresponds to approximately ten visits
each per half day after the necessary clerical work has been done. This is a good
average if detailed and helpful advice is given in the home. When viewed, however,
in relation to the child population to be visited, the amount of visiting cannot be
regarded as adequate.
Thus it is estimated that the children under one year received an average of
three visits each. There are probably some 7,000 children in the Borough aged
one to five, and approximately 9,500 visits were paid to these.
Infant Welfare Centres.
We have become used to crowded Centres in Shoreditch, and the year under
consideration was no exception to the rule. Approximately 60 per cent of all infants
under one year were brought to the Centres, making an average of eleven visits each.
Crowded Centres, however, although gratifying as evidence of the appreciation
of the mothers, do not afford the Health Visitors an opportunity for doing their best
work, as it is impossible for them to give the full care and attention they wish to each
individual if too large a number have to be passed through the Centre during each
session.
At the end of the year the Committee were considering opening fresh Centres,
which they hope to be able to do without encroaching unduly upon the time available
for home visiting.
Particulars as to the attendances at the various Centres will be found in the
table at the end of this section.