London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hackney 1968

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hackney]

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48
clinics in the Borough; some children may be seen at a special investigation
clinic prior to being referred to "child guidance" and in these cases the
social worker will provide support for the families until the child guidance
clinic takes over and also ensure that a psycho-social report is made available
on the family. School health social workers maintain very close liaison with
the school care organisers and his voluntary workers.

Each minor ailment clinic is staffed by a clinic nurse; details of the defects treated are set out below:-

Athlete's foot26
Plantar warts (verrucae)206
Ringworm-
Other skin diseases15
Eye and ear diseases8
Bruises, lacerations, etc.178
433

In addition 749 school children attended one of the Council's chiropody
clinics-mainly for the treatment of plantar warts.
School children made a total of 396 attendances to Goulton Road bathing
centre. 244 children attended for vermin and nits, 32 for scabies, 9 for
minor ailments, and none for impetigo.
HEALTH SURVEYS
The school nurse makes regular health surveys at her schools. They may
be comprehensive, in which case all the children in a class are inspected, or
selective, when only a smaller number of selected children are seen. At all
surveys the nurse examines the child not only for cleanliness of the head, but
also for other aspects e.g. squint, ear discharge, nutritional state. Where
necessary the child is referred for further investigation or treatment.
The school nurse also undertakes communicable disease surveys for
particular conditions such as plantar warts or athletes foot.

The figures for the year are set out below:-

Number examined at comprehensive surveys17,660
Percentage found verminous1.1
Number examined at selective surveys4,636
Percentage found verminous2.9
Number of individual pupils found verminous286
Number referred to a bathing centre57

NURSING STAFF
Nursing staff in the School Health Service includes full-time and parttime
staff. Their duties involve working in ordinary or special schools, in
various clinics and treatment centres, and in various combinations of these.
One nurse is employed in residential duties at a Hackney Children's Home in
Essex. Two nurses have the special additional duty of testing the hearing of
school children by audiometry.
SOCIAL WORK
The social work in the school health service continued to expand in 1968.
An additional member of staff has been appointed to provide casework help to
the families of children attending the Geffrye School for physically handicapped
children. The social worker visits the parents of all new entrants as well as
maintaining close contact with the families of children needing help and support.
The provision of social work help at the New River School for partially sighted
children has continued to' develop and in addition to individual casework,
the social worker is now holding small group sessions for school leavers.
The purpose of the group work is to encourage and enable the children to
express some of their fears and anxieties about moving into the work situation.