Proceedings of conference on rheumatic fever : Washington, D.C., October 5-7, 1943.

  • Conference on Rheumatic Fever (1943 : Washington, D.C.)
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of conference on rheumatic fever : Washington, D.C., October 5-7, 1943. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/142 (page 18)
    picture, the patient is more likely to become confused and eventually to develop a cardiac neurosis. Dr. Eucene Smiru. The other extreme is the group of cases that are not eligible, those who have an irremediable type of heart disease. JI understand we cannot take care of them, but I think we can offer the doctor a great deal of help through consultation service and a little nursing supervision. Many families have such children on their hands and do not know what to do with them; hos- pitalization is not available to them, but by giving them a little consultation service, by having our nurses and medical-social workers go in once in a while to encourage them and help them, I think we will have done much that has really helped these people and the children and their parents.. Dr. Garvin. We have been concerned with this problem down in Virginia. We give each child in the State who can get to the clinic complete diagnostic and follow-up services. We also offer nursing supervision when it is available, and social service through social workers. Dr. Van Horn. Miss Cohen? Miss Conen. I think parents and families are often terribly perplexed when they are told a child believed to have rhéumatic fever is not ill. I have found in some places it is extremely important for the clinic to take plenty of time to explain to the family why it has no service for the child who is not ill or who for some other reason cannot be accepted. I think the time taken in giving a careful explanation is more than worth it. Dr. Van Horn. Miss Carl? Miss Cart. I should like to comment a little more on what Miss Cohen said. We are doing something in Oklahoma that has proved very valuable in helping the parents to understand that a child who previously was considered a cardiac invalid actually does not have heart trouble. We have a case conference after each clinic and that has been most helpful, particularly in our itinerant clinics in the State. The department of public welfare is represented, the local physician, the county health unit, and the county superintendent of schools, and we discuss the problem of the individual child and how and by whom his needs can be met. Dr. Van Horn. Are there any other comments? If not, we shall adjourn until 2 o’clock this afternoon. [The conference was adjourned at 12:45 o'clock to reconvene at 2.] TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1943—-AFTERNOON SESSION INSTITUTIONAL CARE OF CHILDREN WITH ACTIVE RHEUMATIC INFECTION Criteria for Determining Whether Active Infection Is Present Dr. Jackson. Our problem this afternoon is to discuss institutional care of children with active rheumatic infection. As I indicated this morning, in our State we have included children with heart disease in the crippled children’s program—we do not have a rheumatic-fever program as such. When we started our crippled children’s program we wanted very much to include rheumatic fever, diabetes, and certain other conditions as part of the program. Now the Bureau is helping you people from other States to develop rheumatic-fever programs.