[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

Shropshire (England). County Council.

Date:: 1957

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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To the Chairman and Members of the Shropshire Education Committee Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The School Health Services for the County of Salop aim at a pattern of work complementary to that done by family and specialist doctors, with whom relationships and understanding seemed generally good throughout 1957. The Role of the School Medical Officer of twenty years ago was principally concerned with the nutrition, and some treatment, of the children of that period of unemployment. It was to the credit of national and local government that I wrote in an annual report for 1937—“No child, from conception till school leaving age, need suffer from malnutrition if the School Services do their job, and the parents co-operate.” A conscientious and persistent School Medical Officer working for a sympathetic Authority saw to it that the children for whom he was responsible grew up well nourished. Family doctors of those days were in a dilemma, for honest parents who lacked the where¬ withal to pay them hesitated to bring children to their notice. Much more clinical work in minor ailments was done by the School Medical Services, and this was generally welcomed by the family doctor to avoid mutual embarrassments with impecunious patients. The School Medical Service has always been able to take the initiative in a way that is scarcely feasible to the most sympathetic practitioner. Much has happened since then, and full employment affords such plenty that some esoteric dietary experts are beginning to suggest that we live too well, inducing coronary disease by diet too rich in sophisticated fats, just as we induce lung cancer by over-indulgence in cigarettes. They advocate plain living, to which one might advocate adding higher thinking and more grace of humility in place of excessive pride in our material assets. My Colleague the Chief Constable has some serious things to say about the morals of juveniles and their parental upbringing in his Annual Report for 1957, which I do not consider it irrelevant to quote here. Of a thousand detected offenders, 40 per cent, were juveniles; and detected juvenile crime showed an increase of 60 per cent. “The deterioration in the morals of young people under seventeen must be stopped now; this can be fully achieved only with the full co-operation and understanding of the position on the part of parents, many of whom, in the experience of the police, regard their responsibilities as having been taken over by the State.” Our School Doctors, as persons of responsibility and influence in their areas, should be think¬ ing seriously about their duties in encouraging, and participating in the teaching of, the proper priorities for a wholesome life. Health Education (not excluding education in mental health) is indeed being advocated as an important task for the School Medical Officer; it is desired by parents and generally welcomed by teachers, though one must concede that not all are eiually equipped to give it well, and it is not infrequently suspect by doctors outside the Public Health Service. As the role of Public Health and School Medicine varies with time and circumstances, so may the School Health Service more usefully pay attention towards this field, perhaps less congenial to and less explorable by the family practitioner, though always one would hope with his knowledge and goodwill and in association with him.