STREET CORNER HEALTH TALKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18040, 28 December 1926, Page 11

STREET CORNER HEALTH TALKS.

BERMONDSEY LEARNS HOW TO KEEP WELL. (Special to the " Star ”) LONDON. October 27. Now and then there may arise A star in the profeeeional akles. Whom only God dSre criticise; And he may shine without disguise. The star both eminent and wise May blazon to a thousand eyes In Journals which the public buys Such dictuma as his brains devise, Yet not be held to advertise. The G.P. toils and sweats and dies, Much knowledge in liis keeping lies, Experience has made him wise. The fruit and thought of enterprise. But this is lost at his demise. ’Tis hidden from the public eyes, Ho must not, must not advertise. These are extracts from a poetic preface which Dr Donald M. Connan, Deputy Medical Officer of Health lor Bermondsey, has written for “Preaching Prevention,” a book for which he and Mr Rush, propaganda officer, are responsible, and which will shortly be published. Dr Conarf told a "Daily Chronicle” representative, yesterday that Bermondsey is the only local authority in England which has sanctioned a scheme for giving the public information on health matters. No Need to Advertise. “The demand for health information has recently become widespread in certain circles.” he said, “but here in Bermondsey we. have been giving the public such information for a considerable time. “No public meetings are more popular than our open-air health talks, at which we have had audiences of 1.500 people. We make it our business to count the numbers, as our lectures are given from a motor-van in any street iri the borough "We do not advertise these ’ectures in advance. There is no need to do so, for as soon as people realise that a doctor is there willing to tel! them how to prevent illness they gather round, listen, see our health films, made in our own studio, and, we hope, derive some 1 benefit from the experience.

“The Borough Council makes a grant of £ISOO a year for health education, and next year we hope to have some assistance from the Ministry of Health. "We have now been able to test the practical value of the scheme. Before it began, for instance, one milkman waa supplying four families with tuberculin nested milk. To-day 37 milkmen are supplying 1,600 families with tuberculin tested milk. “We do not, of course, give consultations in the street. Our w'ork is to prevent disease.” As many as three health lectures have been given in an evening from the travelling van. They will be continued throughout the winter, in spite of cold weather. Fifty thousand health pamphlets have been distributed in the streets, and it was found a little while ago that as many as 1,500 children knew by heart the health verses which they had noticed on an illuminated signboard in the borough.