[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/138 (page 6)
    H (juickly to the see'ie of accidents, hut also in inilea^e bein^ covered. ])reventin^ iinnecessa The I )otniciliary Nursing vStaff has been fully extended throu^ out the year, and the calls upon their .services are increasing rapidly that they must inevital)ly rec^uire .strengthening if the efficiency is to be maintained. Perhaps few County Boroug present the same j^roblems as Bournemouth, with its high pi portion of elderly and invalid people, and for many of them t’ domiciliary services of the local authority offer the only hope of peaceful and conifortal)le old age, within their own homes. The Domiciliary Midwifery Service has had an exceptional heavy year, and as it appears likely that in the future the majori-. of normal confinements will take place in the home rather than hospital, this service also will re(|uire augmenting if it is to niainta^ its present high standards. Calls on the services of Domestic Helps have shown an increa. and will inevitably continue to do so. The ageing population, present and future problem throughout the country, but partic larly so in Bournemouth, has a great need of strong local authorh: domiciliary .services, both of nurses and auxiliary helpers. N^ only are these elderly people much happier spending their last yea. in their own homes, but to keep them at home is a much sound economic proposition than the provision of hostels, “half-w? houses” and chronic sick beds in hospital. The Health Visitors, while continuing much of their tradition services to mothers and young children, have now become a potei educative force directed towards the family as a unit, irrespecti^ of the age of its members. Co-operation between the health visitc and the hospital and general practitioner services is still not as do: as it should be in a unified National Health Service, and this niii; i inevitably detrad from the efficiency of the service as a whole. The amount of mental ill-health within the community remaii' . distressingly high, and its prevention offers a challenge to 1(K; .i authority services, which should be accepted as readily as was tl challenge of excessive infant mortality, or tuberculosis, many yea'- 3 ago. The attitude of the public towards mental illness is changin j also, and it is becoming increasingly realised that illness, whetlu J mental or physical, can in many cases be treated with suce'ess, an ? the proportion of early cases of mental illness seeking treatment £ J