[Interim report...[and] Final report.... Volume I.Report. Volume II. Appendix].

  • Great Britain. Departmental Committee on Tuberculosis.
Date:
1912-1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: [Interim report...[and] Final report.... Volume I.Report. Volume II. Appendix]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    (8) After-care of Patients. This necessary part of tuberculosis work is kept in view by the Women's National Health Association and its branches. The homes of the patients who are sent to sanatoriums are visited during their absence with a view of making proper provision against their return and enabling them to have a separate room or bed to themselves, also the open windows and good food which are so necessary to establish the arrest of the disease. Constant communications go on between the central association and the various committees all over Ireland with a view to helping in this direction, and it would take too long in this brief summary to describe the ways with which this is being affected. Each case is different, and the resources of the association are taxed to the utmost by these individual cases. Over 500 such cases had to be dealt with last year. The other special undertakings in charge of the Central Branch of the Women's National Health Association are:— (9) Pasteurised Milk Depot. The Pasteurised Milk Depot, Sitric Road, founded in 1908, sends out approximately 70 gallons of milk daily, and it provides also modified pasteurised milk for delicate infants who cannot be nursed by their mothers, and who are sent to the depot by doctors. The results of this depot can best be summarised by a report which is included by Dr. Lumsden. showing that the death-rate amongst delicate infants on taking this milk is 4^ per cent., as against the 14 per cent, infant death-rate which is about the average for Dublin. (10) Transformation of Derelict Spaces into Garden Playgrounds. These are obtained from the corporation or other owners at a nominal rent, and they can be used in various ways in crowded spaces in Dublin, providing a place where young babies can be taken out of doors, and left in charge of an elder girl, where infants have sand-pits to play in in safety, and elder children have a resort out of school hours. This effort is in its infancy, but is already promising most excellent results, not only in its direct effects, but in its indirect effect on the houses around. Ladies are ai-ranging to attend these playgrounds at certain hours to teach the elements of gardening, games, &c. A joinery class for making seats, swings, &c., has been started. (11) Babies' Clubs. Babies' clubs are are institution much favoured by the Women's National Health Association, and are run on similar lines to the English Schools for Mothers. There are five in Dublin, four in Belfast, one in Cork, one in Bray, one in Tullamoi-e, and one in Coleraine, one in Limerick, &c. The connection of the institu- tions with the anti-tuberculosis campaign may not at first be apparent, but seeing that children in Ireland specially suffer from the disease, it is evident that the mothers should be given every assistance to build up their constitution from the very outset. Irish mothers generally nurse their babies, which is a great help, but like mothers elsewhere, need much instniction regarding the undesirability of giving a bite of every- thing to their infants, on the vajue of open windows, suitable clothing, &c. At these clubs the mothers attend once or twice weekly, paying generally a penny a week for the privilege of belonging to the club, and having a cup of tea and a bun. A nurse is attached to the club, who visits in the homes of the mothers, and a doctor meets the mothers once a week when the children are weighed, and advice is given, and the emulation which is created regarding the progress of the babies has a most healthy effect. It may be stated that during last summer when the infant mortality rose so alarmingly as a consequence of the extreme heat, only three babies died amongst the many hundreds of babies who were attending the Dublin, Belfast, and Cork clubs. In connection with these clubs there are nearly always classes and clubs for the elder girls, giving them general health instruction, and especially on the care of the infants for whom they are so often responsible. Boys' clubs are also being started in connection with these institutions. The Women's National Health Association is con- fident that, through its babies' clubs and infant nurses, a great deal of preventive work in connection with the anti-tuberculosis campaign is being effected. During the dangerous autumn weeks of 1911 the association, at the request of the Local Government Board, provided special infant nurses attached to each dispensary district in Dublin. (12) Health Lectures. Lecturers are sent out all over Ireland by the Central Association to give courses of lectures on vorious subjects connected with health generally, accompanied by lantern slides, the local bi-anches paying expenses. The results of these lectures, added to those given in connection with the travelling exhibition and caravan, have most certainly had the result of making the people of Ireland understand the value of open windows, and visitors to Ireland now remark on the great change in this respect, and compare Ireland very favourably in this matter with other countries. The use of oatmeal and cocoa is also largely on the increase, and the use of tooth brushes, as a result of the lectiires and the distribution of literature. The local branches pay travelling expenses and 5s. a lecture. (13) Children suffering from Tuberculosis. One of the great anxieties of the Women's National Health Association is concerning the care of children suffering from various forms of tuberculosis, as there is very little accommodation for child invalids of this description, and there is no specific iustit^^tion taking in children suffering from tuberculosis of the bones and joints. On the other hand, the children's wards in the various hospitals throughout Ireland and the children's hospitals in Dublin and Belfast tell us that two-thirds of the cases have connection with tubercu- losis in some form or another. Sanatoriums for Children and Seaside Homes are therefore a most urgent need. Our health workers believe that the opinion expressed by the Local Government Board in its report for the International Tuberculosis Congress at Wash- ington, that the high death-rate amongst young people in Ireland from tuberculosis points to the disease being contracted during school life is very well founded. There is no medical inspection of school children whatever. There are a large number of school build- ings totally unsuitable and unsanitary, although recently a good many up-to-date schools have been built. The custom in Ireland has been in favour of long successive houi-s in school, with only a break of half an hour between 9.30 and 3.30 p.m., and no regular mid-day meal. No open-air schools for delicate children have been started although we hear now of some teachers taking their classes out of doors in the summer. (14) School Meals. The association and its branches have been trying to do what they can in a small way to remedy this state of things. In a large number of schools now our branches have made provision for a mid-day meal of hot cocoa and milk, the children keeping their bread or biscuits to eat with it. It is found that this can be done on a self-supporting basis. In Clonmel the Women's National Health Associa- tion branch has opened a very successful dinner depot for meals at low prices for both adults and children.