[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset (England). County Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/90 (page 11)
    YOUNG HANDICAPPED CHILDREN The central register of children under observation for actual or potential handicap is being maintained, and an assessment of the educational need of each child is normally made sometime during the fifth year. The largest group of potentially handicapped children is of those under observation for subnormality or retarded development: some of these also have associated problems such as epilepsy, speech defects, deafness or other physical handicap. Health visitors, working closely with family doctors, are available to give special help and advice to the families of these children. When the mental handicap of the child becomes obvious and accepted by the parents they are sometimes greatly assisted by discussion with the School Medical Officer or the Mental Welfare Officer who can inform them about the services available. Recently, for severely subnormal young children, day places have been more easily obtainable in Nursery Units of Training Centres, and for long or short stay care in residential institutions, and the waiting lists have been reduced. There are, however, still some severely subnormal children being cared for at home who are too far away from a Training Centre or too delicate to attend. In such a case the mother may easily become overburdened and in need of a rest and all that can be done to relieve the situation is to admit the child periodically to hospital for a few weeks. Among severely physically handicapped children there are quite a number of children born with spina bifida abnormality who, due to modern surgery, now survive their infancy without mental impairment and who have a reasonable expectation of life. DISTRIBUTION OF WELFARE FOODS The distribution of welfare foods continued throughout the year with little change in the arrangements by which these foods are made available to beneficiaries. There were 188 centres on the 31st December, 1966, i.e. 108 at Health Clinics and Child Welfare Centres and 80 in various other premises. The following shows the extent of the distribu¬ tion of welfare foods during the past three years:— Year National Dried Milk (tins) Cod Liver Oil (Bottles) Vitamin A & D Tablets (packets) Orange Juice (Bottles) 1964 67,748 11,546 14,778 124,253 1965 67,158 11,952 13,297 132,155 1966 61,032 11,126 12,489 141,447 A significant fall in issues of national dried milk suggests that mothers nbw have a preference for proprietary brands of milk powder. This may, of course, be the result of intensive advertising by the firms concerned and the fact that there is little difference in price between the branded and national product. There is a marked rise in the sales of orange juice and this has been the trend for the past few years. The concentrated orange juice is available to expectant mothers and children up to 5 years as a vitamin C supplement.