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31
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE.
Co-ordination.
The staffs of the school health and maternity and child welfare
services are interchangeable. The opportunity thus afforded to
health visitors to work in both departments, ensures greater continuity
in the supervision of the health and welfare of children of all ages;
and is in accordance with the expressed intention of the Ministry of
Education Regulations, 1945.
During the past year the school medical officers have assisted in
the staffing of "toddler clinics," where children, from the ages of
two to five, attend for periodic health inspection on lines
similar to routine medical inspection in schools. This ensures that
children from an early age have the benefit of an organised and coordinated
medical service. In addition, the regular medical
inspection in nursery schools and nursery classes provides an even
closer supervision of children of this age-group.
Intensive efforts have been made to secure the utmost cooperation
of parents; and, in this respect, increasing opportunities
have been given through the medium of parent-teacher associations,
by invitations extended to members of the medical staff to address a
number of their meetings.
The school medical officer is represented on the Juvenile Employment
Committee and the local Youth Committee, thus extending the
supervision of the school health service to the adolescent in his
social environment.
No comment on the task of co-ordination in this area would be
complete without special mention of the invaluable work carried out
by the Invalid Children's Aid Association and the National Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, whose functions in the
voluntary field are increasingly important to the smooth and
effective working of the school health service.