PUBLIC HEALTH WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1939, Page 8

PUBLIC HEALTH WORK

INTEREST IN INFANT V\(ELFARE. CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN. An increasing and heartening general interest in public health work and infant welfare is evident in Britain and Europe, according to Miss M. G. Hitchman, formerly a Plunket Nurse in Carterton for several years, who has been studying and investigating, nealth matters of this nature in the British Isles, and Ireland, in France, Switzerland and Italy. In England the attitude toward clinics and health centres similar to those of the Plunket system in New Zealand, was to regard them as desirable only for the very poor. This attitude was slowly but steadily being fought down, though said Miss Hitchman in an interview, it would be many years before England came to look on the clinics as places where every class of person might meet for mutual assistance, as in New Zealand. In this country the health centres and clinics were entirely educational, and rightly regarded so by the people, but the Englishwoman was inclined to look on them as social meeting places.

One of the most interesting centres Miss Hitchman visited was the Pioneer Health Centre in Pickham, London. The centre is still experimental in nature, and is the only one of its kind. It takes in whole families in the manner of a club —providing physical culture, libraries and other cultural means of improvement. ’ Here mothers may leave their children for a day, or whole families may spend their evenings there. The broadening aspect for families living in crowded areas was invaluable. This centre encouraged the family spirit and parenthood, and particularly cared for mothers. Its need was adequately shown in the records, which showed that, of 500 women who were examined in the first year, only eight were not deficient either physically or mentally. The centre encourages yearly examinations, and guides the people in preventive and health measures. Such enthusiasm was shown by the people assisted by this centre, that they did a great deal of the organising themselves. All the benefits cost them only Is a week. Miss Hitchman was fortunate in being able not only to see over many hospitals and welfare centres, but to gain practical experience in many of them. During the crisis of September, 1938, she was in London and enrolled as a war nurse. As a result of this she later took work in a temporary capacity at the Milbank Military Hospital. She took a course in Public Health work and nursing at Battersby and at Bedford Colleges, which were the originals upon which the course for graduate nurses which is conducted by the Health Department in Wellington each year was based. Other places she visited included Cromwell House, the centre of the Truby King work in England. Truby King nurses are urgently needed in England and there is a real shortage of nurses with this mothercraft training, said Miss Hitchman. New Zealand is very fortunate in having the specialised workers and the splendid service offered by the Plunket Society. The Royal Infirmary Hospital in Edinburgh uses Truby King methods and trains all its nurses in “them. In all hospitals and among welfare workers Miss Hitch-

man encountered a real love and respect for the late Sir Truby King. Many people knew more about him than most New Zealanders know. They had a very real respect for his genius. Miss Hitchman was 18 months abroad, and has returned to Plunket work in Wellington with a broader view of her work and renewed interest. Miss Hitchman spent a month in Ireland where she found that though the people wefe 100 years behind England they were taking a great, interest in public health work. In' France knowledge of nutrition was very advanced, and Switzerland had very advanced welfare centres. Italy, she found, gave particular attention to women’s health and infant welfare. She was able to visit numbers of hospitals and clinics in this country and was very hospitably received.