[Report 1926] / School Medical Officer of Health, St Helens.

  • St. Helens (Merseyside, England). Council.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1926] / School Medical Officer of Health, St Helens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    appreciable, number of cripples who are permanently unsuitable for an ordinary school. In St. Helens, at present, the only edu¬ cational facilities available for these cases, apart from sending them to residential schools, are provided by the Voluntary Society who run a small voluntary part-time school. This school—admission to which is by arrangement dependent on the School Medical Officer s certificate as to suitability—-does excellent work, but it is a question for the Education Committee to consider whether the time has not arrived when they should themselves provide such facilities. One cannot leave the question of the crippled child without mentioning another type of cripple, namely, the cardiac cripple. These are children who, generally as a result of an attack of rheu¬ matism or chorea, have some abnormality of the heart. Such children can never be completely cured. Depending entirely on the degree of abnormality and the general health of the child, a cardiac cripple is always liable to break down under any undue strain. Some pass through ordinary school life without effort only to break down in later life ; some have occasional break¬ downs during school life ; whilst others are quite unfit to stand the strain of ordinary school life. All should have extra atten¬ tion, both medically and educationally during school life. I would suggest that these should be dealt with as follows :— (a) Minor cases, where the general health is good, might re¬ main at ordinary schools under special medical super¬ vision and with special attention by the teacher so as to avoid overstrain. (b) Cases in whom the general health requires attention could attend the open air school. (c) Severe cases could attend a cripple school with the ortho¬ paedic cripples.