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health visitor to the Unit in May, and of Miss Taylor as a full-time
social worker in September.
'A mixed-sex assessment Ward of 13 beds was opened in November
at St. George's and during the 1971 year a Day Hospital will
be opened at the Cumberland Hospital.'
HEALTH EDUCATION
General
One aim of health education is to widen man's sphere of knowledge,
and in doing so to remove his fear and ignorance to enable him
to take personal responsibility for safeguarding his own health and
that of his family. By both example and teaching, it also encourages
the young to do likewise within the limits of their own abilities.
Many diseases have been conquered by man and standards of
hygiene are accepted to-day as a normal part of everyday living which,
not many years ago, would have been regarded as quite unnecessary.
Regrettably, though, other standards have been lowered and disease
allowed to flourish, partly perhaps, because personal responsibility has
been removed almost entirely, and man is not required to participate
in the promotion of his own health and that of the community in
which he lives.
The prime function of health education must surely be to gain
the participation of the individual and, in so doing, to increase his or
her responsibility for achieving and maintaining higher standards of
health, physical, mental and social.
Health Education in Clinics
At Ante-natal and Expectant Parent Classes, the aim of the
health visitors and midwives is to increase the knowledge and understanding
of expectant parents of physical and emotional changes which
take place during pregnancy and childbirth, and the needs arising
therefrom. A general practitioner completes the team who take the
evening classes— a series of four— to which the expectant fathers,
together with their wives, are invited.
These are proving very successful and the opportunity for expectant
fathers to learn considerably more about this hitherto sacrosanct
period is obviously welcomed by them.
The visual aids used during these courses have proved to be of
great value.
Parentcraft
An alternative name has been sought for these groups as the concepts
and needs have altered, but as yet without success. The programmes
now range over a much wider field of subjects, since a period
of relaxation and interest, rather than obvious education, appears to
be the stimulus the mothers seek on an afternoon or evening away
from home ties.
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