Report of the Provincial Board of Health / Province of British Columbia.

  • British Columbia. Provincial Board of Health
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Provincial Board of Health / Province of British Columbia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Honourable S. L. Howe, Provincial Secretary, Victoria, B.C. Provincial Board of Health, Victoria, B.C., December 31st, 1932. Sir,—I have the honour to submit the Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Provincial Board of Health of British Columbia for the period ended December 31st, 1932. This Report, owing to a change in the date of issue and the deletion of the Medical Inspec¬ tion of Schools Report, which has been published separately, will represent a brief report of the health conditions existing in the Province for the past eighteen months. British Columbia has made, during the past ten years, a remarkable progress in health-work. This is particularly evidenced by the co-operation of the people in helping us to carry out our policies and plans. Our efforts, during the past ten years, have been devoted largely to the education of the public by the inauguration of full-time health units presided over by a trained personnel, which enabled us to give practical demonstrations of the policies that we were advocating. The results of these have been remarkable, and we feel now that the present examples that we can point to in British Columbia, confirm all our messages to the people both in regard to the improvement of the health of the population, and particularly in regard to the reduction of costs. The economic conditions existing for the past three years have tried the resources of the Province, and an enormous amount of work has involved the different departments in the carrying-out of the efforts of the Government to meet the distress and to provide for the enormous population who have been obliged to apply for relief. This has necessitated curtail¬ ment of budgets, which prevented any hope of making further progress in the development of our work, and the amount retained in the budget has been barely sufficient to maintain our work. It is to be regretted that the very essential work of the health departments has been con¬ sidered on a par with all other departments, and has suffered accordingly. This is due to the fact that the public have not as yet grasped the fact that the human asset exceeds in value by five times the amount of the value of the material assets of the country, and in the present emergency our duty is, more than anything else, to spread amongst the people, and especially amongst the leaders, the true importance of public health in the social economy of the nation, and to point out that a greater investment should be made in order to conserve the enormously valuable human asset. A per capita cost of about 15 cents, representing the expenditure for public-health purposes, is a sad commentary on the lack of knowledge in the minds of the public of the real value of the work when so much can be done for small cost. It is a pity that they do not realize that the maintenance of the public health at high levels is vital to public welfare. The present tendency to cut public-health expenditures is of grave concern to all interested in the nation’s welfare. It is true that during the past two years the health conditions that have prevailed throughout Canada have been very favourable, and it is gratifying to know this. By and large, the health of the people, as represented by the reports of sickness and deaths, is good, despite the fact that this is the third year of serious economic depression. It should be pointed out, however, that these records referred to throw no light on the mental health of the people, which must be anything but good, and this is a condition that, should present conditions continue, we will see the effect of, and in addition we will soon become aware of the consequence of malnutrition in terms of disease and mortality records. There is no doubt that the most important factor in the condition as reported above, during the past two years, is due to the continued and effective functioning of the health departments, the medical profession, and the social service agencies. The above points have been clearly set forth in a speech by Dr. Dublin, the President of the American Public Health Association, during 1932. In British Columbia the conditions that prevailed have been satisfactory when we consider the circumstances under which the people have been living, but the mental effect upon the people, as the result of so many people being forced upon relief, must bear its toll. While I am not pessimistic as to the future of the people of British Columbia, still I have not any false hope that we will escape the effects on the general health of the people.
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