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45
Mothercraft
It has been possible during the year to start mothercraft
sessions at one more clinic. This means that mothercraft teaching
and education in childbirth is now available at five of our clinics.
Evening Fathercraft sessions have also been available at
these five clinics.
Care of the Elderly
Better liaison between general practitioners and health
visitors, and also the necessity for health visitors to visit the
elderly who are attending the health advisory clinics, have
increased the health visitors assessment visits to the elderly.
It was felt that many of the elderly being visited by the
health visitors were often being excellently cared for by voluntary
visitors from the Old People's Welfare Association or by local
churches, but most were working in isolation and there was very
little communication between the visitors. Many elderly were found
to be visited by as many as five statutory or voluntary visitors,
while other elderly were frequently missed altogether. To try and
improve the channels of communication the superintendent health
visitor arranged a course for both statutory and voluntary visitors
of the borough. This was held at one of the clinics and consisted
of eight two-hourly afternoon sessions. There were talks,
discussions and films covering every aspect of the care of the elderly.
As a result of this course names and addresses of people
visited have been exchanged between workers and two of our clinics are
now open once a month for statutory and voluntary visitors to meet and
discuss cases. Once every three months a more formal meeting of all
the workers has been held at four of our clinics to discuss continued
liaison. At the last meeting of the year an invitation was also sent
to the clergy of the area. There was an excellent response and there
was a most fruitful and excellent discussion which will lead to the
benefit of the elderly.
Immigrant Health
The medical officer of health is notified by airports and
seaports of new arrivals in the country and the addresses to which they
are going. The health visitors then attend to offer advice on
services and persuade them to register with a general practitioner and
to have a chest X-ray if this had not been done on entry. Of 114
immigrants whose arrivals were notified, 71 were visited during the
year; the remainder were either untraceable or were known to have
moved to other areas.