[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Blyth Borough.

  • Blyth (Northumberland, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Blyth Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    detached view of the problem. Someone to listen, to comfort, and to advise. The very fact of ‘ getting it off one’s chest ’ can often be the safety valve for suppressed feelings or the fact of facing up to one’s troubles and having them shared can bring lasting relief to a problem which might otherwise have serious consequences if not unburdened. There are, of course, patients with incurable heart disease, with inoperable cancer and other illnesses that have gone too far. In the same way diseases of the mind can reach that state where only hospital treatment is the answer and sometimes the patient can reach the stage when he is a danger to himself or to others, and for every- one’s sake must be detained in hospital. With this exception, however, hospital treatment is no longer intended to be indefinite incarceration. More and more, patients are being admitted to hospital for short periods of treat- ment, in the same way as other diseases are treated in other hospitals and then discharged home for further treatment under the family doctor. This is the method of the future and it is one which will give confidence to patients and perhaps even cause them to seek advice at a much earlier stage. Like any other disease, the sooner it is discovered the better chance there is of complete recovery. 1950 — IN RETROSPECT Housing. The following houses were still in existence, constituting sordid slum dwellings lacking essential amenities. The majority were maintained in an amazingly clean and tidy state by the tenants. It was difficult to understand how this standard was achieved. 1. Cowpen Colliery—West Row, Gas Row, Double Row, 6th Row. 2. Phoenix Street and Elliott Street. 3. Cowpen Row. 4. Kitty Brewster. 5. Bebside—Purvis Row, Front Street, Errington Street, Wood Row, Stone Row and Lonsdale Terrace.