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Take smoking for example, how many times do we hear of parents offering cigarettes
to their children, saying "well of course he will come to it one day", and the little shops
near to a school selling single cigarettes to the school children, thinking more of the monetary
gain than health values, what chance has an anti-smoking project at the school?
There are also too many tablets available for all types, and the parents who, in front
of the children, refer to them as sweets? Here again the child is brought up in an atmosphere
of tablets, and again the people who must lean on something, turn to tablets instead of facing
up to life, tackle the problem in the right way and make themselves stronger for the next one.
Here health education can assist in numerous ways.
A great deal of health education work is carried out by our own staff, especially
Doctors and Health Visitors by means of talks and lectures at clinics, schools and other
organisations using films, filmstrips and slides together with leaflets and poster displays,
using some of our own material and some hired from specialist firms.
A fair amount of health education work is carried out at a number of schools, using
their own staffs, but one would like to see all schools doing this work, in fact the time has
come when it should be included in the curriculum. Some schools are very keen and have
Health Weeks and Projects on a specific subject, the Health Education Officer is often
approached for information and advice on planning and assistance.
There is a dearth of good material of all types, (films, filmstrips, slides, tapes,
leaflets, posters etc.) which quite often means that our own staff have to produce material.
Sometimes this is to our own advantage as it fits our specialised requirements. We cannot,
of course, carry a large stock because of storage problems and this necessitates hiring from
specialist firms which can be quite expensive.
Health Education has so many deeply entrenched evi Is and dangers to overcome that
progress is necessarily slow: but leaders of public opinion are increasingly becoming aware
of its value, and of the need ultimately to save money by making more manpower and equipment
available now to obviate expensive treatment of addictions and preventable diseases
later.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
ST.JAMES' HEALTH CENTRE
Continuing the Council's long-term policy of Health Centre Development in the
Borough, the third such building to be erected since 1965 was opened in September, 1970.
The site is at the junction of Markhouse Road and St.James' Street, Walthamstow.
This is a main bus route and the Health Centre is in close proximity to the local railway
station.
It was with the knowledge of proposed redevelopment and the effect it could have
upon the practices and surgery accommodation of a number of general medical practitioners
working in the area, together with the need to replace an existing but old and inadequate
Health Services Clinic in Markhouse Road, that led to the decision to erect a Health Centre
in the locality.
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