The family health maintenance demonstration : a controlled long term investigation of family health. Proceedings of a round table at the 1953 Annual Conference of the Milbank Memorial Fund.

  • Milbank Memorial Fund.
Date:
1954
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: The family health maintenance demonstration : a controlled long term investigation of family health. Proceedings of a round table at the 1953 Annual Conference of the Milbank Memorial Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FOREWORD P UBLIC health measures have been increasingly successful in the prevention of disease, but less effective in maintaining and improving measurably the standard of health of indi- iuals, famihes or communities. For health is not merely the ab- lce of disease, nor does it find full expression in physical fitness, rhaps the lack of a clear definition has been in part responsible • failure to find suitable ways and means of promoting it. It >uld be an exaggeration to say that no effective ways and means % but it would also be a mistake to believe that they are suffi- dy precise, reliable and inclusive to constitute a complete or un- r actory program. he progress of public health has invalidated one definition of ;h after another. Perhaps the most satisfactory in recent years le description in the preamble to the Constitution of the World alth Organization. Beginning with the statement: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. xt goes on in other paragraphs: the ability to live harmoniously in a changing total environ ment is essential to (child) development, and The extension to all peoples of the benefits of medical, psycho logical and related knowledge is essential to the fullest attain ment of health. Finally the larger implications are emphasized in the statement: The achievement of any State in the promotion and protection of health is of value to all. Some of these ideas were in the minds of the individuals who proposed a long term field study of families to determine whether special preventive methods and services added to comprehensive medical care might bring about demonstrable improvements in the continuing health of families.