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HEALTH EDUCATION
Continuous education of the people in the method and importance of healthy living was
carried on throughout the year by means of individual conversations, during visits to homes
for any reason by any member of the staff of the Public Health Department; by means of the
display of topical posters on health hazards; by means of the issue of handbills and leaflets.
A considerable amount of publicity was given to the visit of the Mass X-ray Unit in the
summer when newspaper notices and advertisements, and the display of two large banners
on the Town Hall and at the busy crossing at the Iron Bridge, were added to the handbill
and poster publicity. Leaflets were also distributed through the post to every house in the
Borough on this occasion.
In Southall for many years we have been able to claim that the incidence of infectious
disease, and of the dirt diseases, was good compared with Regional and National figures,
but to keep dysentery and food poisoning at bay has meant that incessant vigilance over the
handling of food and insistence in propaganda in personal cleanliness has been necessary.
Facilities for the washing of hands in places where the public congregate to eat meals and
in the public conveniences of the Borough are reasonably good and improving constantly,
but all the washbasins in the world are of no avail to prevent contamination if the people
will not use them, and this is one of the hardest tasks of the health educator. In this an
excellent example is given to the population as a whole by the Indian citizens, to whom
ritual hand washing before the handling of food is a practice from earliest childhood.
Carelessness in this respect can at any time bring disaster in the form of intestinal disease,
which, however transitory, detracts from perfect health and can have debilitating effects
tending to lower the resistance of the body to more serious illness.
The problems of the increase of Venereal Disease and drug taking are difficult ones, and
health education must be directed more to these evils, which are social diseases of considerable
importance. As health educators the staff of the Public Health Department have
to deal with these matters purely on health grounds, avoiding the moral issues, but there is no
difficulty in pointing out the health hazards of these terrible scourges. Mental health
is as important as physical health and clean and healthy living must be preached with the aim
of securing for every man, woman and child perfect mental balance combined with a
splendid physical frame and structure. It is necessary all the time to combat the morbid
fascination which sickness, operations, hospital attendances, medicines to make people
sleep, and other medicines to make the same people wake up and be stimulated, have to the
minds of persons of all social classes. The answer to "How do you do?" these days is more
likely to be a string of complaints of ill-health and visits to doctors or hospitals, than
"Very well, thank you!" and ill-health gradually becomes as much of an English topic as the
weather, at least amongst the over-thirty population. Positive Health is our essential slogan,
and we need to teach people to be ashamed to speak about illness, and to take pride in their
health and wellbeing, and to live clean, active and useful lives.
At a Conference held by the Central Council for Health Education in January, various
problems connected with the relationships between parents and their children were discussed,
and the usefulness of parents clubs, and the teaching of Motherhood and Fatherhood.
Early in the year a drive for increased care in the deposit of litter on the roads included
the provision of more litter bins and the widespread display of a clever Lion poster with the
slogan "Keep Britain Tidy"—this poster was copied for inclusion in the Southall Carnival
brochure, the wording being changed to "Keep Southall Tidy."
Use was made of the Carnival procession in August for propaganda against infectious
disease. A large float was designed and entered in the Show by a famous baby food and drug
firm; this displayed information about prevention by inoculation. The Mass X-ray Unit
and the Gas Board also took part in the Display.
A special issue of new posters warning against the dangers of Venereal Disease was
obtained, and circulated to medical practitioners for use in their waiting rooms or other
offices as well as to factories and other sites suitable for these notices.
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