London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Tottenham 1959
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Tottenham]
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situations where the need is seen first by the health visitor she uses all her ingenuity and skill
to move the family towards the attainment of health and the desire to achieve it. Listening,
interpreting, counselling, instructing, encouraging, preventing, are some of the words used to
described the activities of the health visitor with each person who seeks her help or is sought out
by her.
In the wider field, the health visitor has been used by local health departments, hospitals,
the Medical Research Council and other investigators connected with problems of peri-natal
death rates, the health and development of children and other age groups.
The following table shows the number of visits paid by health visitors during the past two
years
| No. of visits paid by Health Visitors working in the Area:- | 1959 | 1958 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sxpectant Mothers | First Visits | 2285 | 1982 |
| Total Visits | 3511 | 3358 | |
| Children under 1 year of age | First Visits | 4234 | 4136 |
| Total Visits | 16056 | 16025 | |
| Children aged 1-2 | Total Visits | 8101 | 7771 |
| Children aged 2 -5 | Total Visits | 13202 | 12643 |
| Other cases - | Total Visits as Health Visitor | 6246 | 6051 |
| - | Total Visits as School Nurse | 878 | 911 |
A new feature of health visiting in the Area is the extension of the service to a Group
Practice Centre in Tottenham. A health visitor attends the Centre for two sessions each week.
One is a baby welfare session to offer advice and to make a selection of children to see the
doctor for examination or opinion. This procedure conforms to much the same method as is used
in local authority welfare centres. The second session the health visitor is present to listen to
and to give counsel on various difficulties expressed to herself or the doctors by patients attending
the Centre. Problems connected with the care of the aged and care of the family during the
mother's absence in hospital for confinement or other reasons are talked over with patients and
resolved where it is possible. The statutory and voluntary services available in the Area are
made known, clarified and put into motion where they can help to overcome difficulties. The
health visitor concerned also collects particulars of any patients for whom the general practitioners
request a home visit. Some of these are dealt with by the health visitor herself, but those living
outside her district are handed on to the health visitor on whose district the patient lives. This
method of co-operation has not presented any complications.
Mental Health Case Conference
Health visitors presentation to the Case Conferences for health visitors has continued to be
held at monthly intervals during the year. Eighteen cases were selected for discussion. Several
individuals who were the topic of observation and were in need of psychiatric help were subsequently
seen by Dr. J.C. Sawle-Thomas, Regional Psychiatrist to the North East Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Board and Consultant to the Prince of Wales's Hospital. The conferences are
held under his guidance.
Those family doctors who have been concerned with particular patients have been most
co-operative throughout in assessing those indicated by the health visitor and by making ultimate