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25
SECTION II.
HEALTH PROPAGANDA.
The Council place the greatest importance on health propaganda and health
education, as these mean much in progressing towards a healthier race. They cost
but little—only a fraction of what health services cost—and yet no part of the services
is likely to give better value for money spent. It goes without saying that the health
services provided by the municipality should be used by its citizens, and little will
be accomplished if the citizens know not of them, and do not appreciate how helpful
they can be.
Increased co-operation by the public will ensure a better environmental health
service ; a more extensive use of the health clinics for laying the foundations of
a healthy life ; a more efficient school medical service, which suffers much from
the want of publicity—for example there are too few parents who realise how necessary
dental treatment is for children with dental defects—and a better tuberculosis
service, when the public appreciate that delay in securing treatment is dangerous,
and that the best thing a contact of tuberculosis can do is to submit himself for
medical examination.
There is need for development in all these and kindred matters and much of
that development will come through greater publicity and greater knowledge of
the health services.
The activities during 1936 can be classified as follows :—
(а) Health Services Booklet.—A booklet of twenty pages giving full
information regarding the Council's health services can be obtained free of charge
on application at the Health Department, or at any of the Council's health centres,
dispensaries and public libraries. It is sent as a matter of routine to every new
tenant on the Council's estates ; copies are distributed by post from time to time
to residents in the Borough, selected at random, and copies are offered at each
informal talk, referred to in heading (d), to all members of the audience. It was
distributed in large numbers at the Eltham Health Exhibition. In every way
possible it is brought to the notice of the public so that the Council's health services
may be widely known. It is now in its fifth edition and is in addition to the leaflets
issued on special subjects.
(б) Health Week.—The Council, as has been their practice since 1925, arranged
a health week in the autumn. Despite the discouraging experience at Eltham in
1932, when a small exhibition was arranged at the Eltham Health Centre, it was
decided to arrange another at the Arcade Hall. This was highly successful, as the
following report of the Public Health Committee to the Council shows. It was
generally recognised that it was unfortunate that it was not possible, owing to the
lack of a suitable hall, to organise a larger exhibition.