View report page

24
SECTION II.
HEALTH PROPAGANDA.
In health propaganda work there are two main objects:— (a) the broadcasting
of information about the health activities of the Council, and (b) the stimulation
and maintenance of public interest in matters of health. Excluding the day-byday
work of the sanitary inspectors, health visitors, and tuberculosis visitors in the
home and in clinics, the activities of the Council in these respects may be classified
as follows:—
(a) Health Services Booklet.—A booklet of twenty pages giving information
regarding the Council's Health Services has been prepared and advantage is taken
of every opportunity of distributing it to householders in the Borough. It can be
obtained free on application at the Health Department, or at any of the Council's
Welfare Centres, Dispensaries and Public Libraries. It is sent as a matter of routine
to every new tenant on the Council's estates. It is now in its fourth edition. This
booklet is in addition to the leaflets dealing with specific matters.
(b) Health Week.—As a house-to-house distribution of the maternity services
booklet had been made in connection with the Silver Jubilee Celebrations earlier
in the year no Health Week was organised in the Autumn.
(c) Silver Jubilee Celebrations.—The Council as a body took part in the
Silver Jubilee Celebrations and the individual Committees of the Council each
contributed.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Committee published a booklet placing on
record in a permanent form the activities of the Borough Council in maternity
and child welfare work, in order that the inhabitants of the Borough might realise
and appreciate what had been done and accomplished during the last 25 years
The booklet which was entitled "The care of the Mother and Child during the
reign of King George V." set out in full the development of the service from its
start in 1906 and directed special attention in the closing paragraphs to the need
for further efforts to reduce maternal mortality and the need for development of
additional services for the care of the toddler. A copy of the booklet was sent by
post to every house in the Borough.
A feature of the Celebrations was a procession of decorated vehicles, serious
and otherwise, which traversed the principal streets of Plumstead, Woolwich and
Eltham and aroused much public interest. The Public Health Committee entered
an exhibit in this procession. It consisted of a Welfare Centre tableau, arranged
on a horse-drawn float, and attention was drawn in a simple way to the importance
of prevention in the fight against disease.