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37
HEALTH EDUCATION
"The aims of the health service will fall short of achievement if not
supported by informed public opinion." vide 1955 Annual Report of
the Ministry of Health.
Some sections of the community are a natural objective for the
Health Educator, as with the young or expectant mother or the school
leaver, who to-day are probably vastly better informed than were their
grandmothers at the turn of the century.
Even so there is still some apathy, and there are often indications
that not even a good educational and cultural background is always a
guarantee of complete good health habits, and the combination of fantasy
and half-truths which surround some aspects of health could be amusing
if they were not so tragic.
Health education has many outlets, both formal, as in the case of
talks and lectures to organised groups; and informal, as in personal
contact with individuals. In the latter context the Doctors, Health
Visitors, Midwives and Public Health Inspectors, with their access to the
home and a person's confidence have a unique opportunity to propagate
information, although probably the recipient is not aware that he or she
is being educated at the time.
The report of the Committee of Enquiry into the unfortunate outbreak
of typhoid fever in Aberdeen during the year brought to the fore
the need for the health education of food handlers, as however good a
food premises may be, they are no substitute for a high standard of
personal hygiene and technique by the individual. Whilst nine of the
twenty-two talks on food hygiene under the Environmental Health talks
Programme were to groups of professional food handlers, it was discovered
that in many cases these were the first they had received on the
subject. In 1965 an invitation will be extended to the staffs of all food
premises in Harrow to attend a short course of lectures.
As already mentioned in other sections of this report, there is a
continuous programme of Health Education by the Health Visitors in
the Clinics, Mothercraft and Relaxation Classes, comprising a course of
eight or nine lectures, taking place every week. Then too, recognising
that the informed husband can be of great support to the mother during
pregnancy, confinement, and the period of post-natal adjustment, the
fathers are invited to attend a course of four Fathercraft lectures at the
Carly Thomas Clinic. Six such courses were held during the year,
Finally the expectant mothers and their husbands are invited to attend
a film evening together which takes place alternate months at Honeypot
and Cecil Park Clinics. The husbands have often expressed their
appreciation of the programme, and once they can be persuaded to overcome
their initial shyness some interesting group discussions follow
the talks.