[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council.

  • East Sussex (England). County Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, East Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    3^ displays, health education, exhibitions and addresses to meetings of the general public.! Some of the medical officers of county districts give talks to schools. Women’s Institutes and other gatherings on such subjects as general hygiene, nutrition, prevention of accidents in the home, the importance of vaccination and immunisation, and clean food. Instructional talks, mainly given by senior members of the nursing staff, are given at infant welfare centres. The Area superintendents give mothercraft lectures and demonstrations to older girls in maintained schools. All district nurses, midwives and health visitors in their day-to-day contacts with mothers and others stress the importance of vaccination and immunisation and other aspects of prevention and a healthy life. The authority have not taken any organised steps to prevent accidents in the home, but advice and propaganda are continually carried on by the nursing and midwifery staff, including the health vi.sitors, as part of their daily work. 14. MENTAL HEALTH. Administration. The Mental Health Sub-Committee of the Health Committee discharge the local health authority’s functions relating to the care of mentally defective persons, and their duties in respect of the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890-1930. These matters are not delegated to the sub-committee for the area of Hove and Portslade. The Sub-Committee, consisting of six County Council members and one co-opted member of the Health Committee, meet quarterly. The County Medical Officer of Health is responsible to the authority for the organisation and medical direction of the service, with the assistance of his deputy and three assistant medical officers. Two of the latter are approved by the authority for the purpose of signing certificates under the Mental Deficiency Acts and all are approved by the Ministry of Education for examining and reporting on children believed to be educationally subnormal. The Child Guidance Service (which is only mentioned owing to its continuity and relationship with the work of the Health Committee) is a joint one for the County of East Sussex and the County Boroughs of Eastbourne and Hastings. The staff consists of a! whole-time and two part-time psychiatrists (made available by the South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board), one whole-time educational psychologist and one part-time and four psychiatric social workers. There are four full-time duly authorised officers, one of whom is a woman. Two ofi these hold the certificate of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, while the otherj two have had very considerable experience of mental health work over many years past. Initial proceedings in providing care and treatment for persons suffering from mental illness are taken by these officers, and supervision and care of mental defectives in the community are carried out by the same four officers and a whole-time home visitor to mental defectives. In addition a male officer, on the central office staff, engaged mainly on administrative | duties, is available in emergency as a duly authorised officer and, in practice, it is founds essential to have such an arrangement. Experience has shown that the allocation of hard] and fast area limits for mental health officers is not yet a practicable proposition. The sitingj of officers at strategic points is an essential preliminary, but housing and other difficulties' for the time being prevent this. At the present time there is no authorised officer east of Seaford or north of Lewes and, consequently, long journeys have to be made to cope with' cases in three-quarters of the county area. The services of all mental health officers continue to be available to institutions under?!, the control of hospital boards, for the supervision of patients on licence from institutions E for mental defectives. During the year routine visits were paid to 20 defectives and reports E were sent to licensing hospitals. The supervision of patients discharged on trial from mental E hospitals is a duty usually discharged by officers of hospital boards, but supervision wouldtjil be undertaken on request.