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health visitors have certainly been made more aware of the needs of the
general practitioners' patients and conversely the general practitioners
have been made more aware of the health visitors' preventive work in
the community.
Attachment to group practice has meant that the health visitor
has been used as an adviser on health to the family, although their
largest case load is with the young and the elderly.
The attached health visitors have been better able to assist
parents to cope with their ill toddlers as they have been available to
give advice at the correct time. They are more aware of the problems
occurring in adolescence and have been able to advise families on the
ways to deal with the problems. They have had mare contact with the
bereaved and have been able to give more support to the families of the
dying. Some of the health visitors have been able to hold group
discussions on a variety of health subjects in the doctors' waiting
rooms, and two of them have commenced Well Baby Clinics in their doctors'
surgeries, thus making a total of three in the borough.
Junior Training Centre for Mentally Handicapped
In March 1970 one health visitor was attached to the Junior
Training Centre. She has been present, with the senior medical officer,
at all the medical inspections and has liaised with the parents and the
staffs of the Training Centre and the Mental Health Section. The health
visitor has visited the homes and the parents have been glad of the
opportunity to discuss their handicapped children with her. Many have
been concerned about their children's behaviour problems and particularly
those whose children suffer from enuresis.
Help has also been provided with arrangements for holiday homes
for the children and information given regarding the local Society for the
Mentally Handicapped and the various other facilities in the borough.
The same health visitor now participates in the health education
programme, showing films, giving talks and demonstrations to the children
at the Training Centre.
Cytology Clinic
The health visitors have encouraged mothers at risk to have
cervical smears taken, either by appointment with their own doctors or at
a local authority clinic. Instruction on self-examination of the breasts