DUTIES OF THE HEALTH IN SYPHILIS PUBLIC SERVICE Your State and local health departments, in cooperation with voluntary agencies and the physician in private practice, are responsible for the control of syphilis. ... You SHOULD You SUPPORT THEM #6. Venereal Disease Poster Series, P.H.S., price 75¢ per set of six. AIDS TO TEACHING EYE HEALTH AND SIGHT CONSERVATION On June 8th, the Leslie Dana Gold Medal was awarded to Mrs. Winifred Hathaway of New York City, Associate Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness. Mrs. Hathaway was selected for this honor by the St. Louis Society for the Blind, through which the medal is offered by Mr. Leslie Dana, a citizen of that city. The Dana medal is awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the prevention of blindness and the conservation of vision. This year's recipient of the award, through her many years of service in the campaign to save eyesight, has been especially active in her work in promoting the establishment of sight-saving classes in which children with seriously defective vision receive a normal education with a minimum of eyestrain. There are now 525 such classes in 168 communities throughout the United States. The National Society for the Prevention of Blindness this summer continues its campaign for sight-saving classes which has met with striking success through the efforts of Mrs. Hathaway. This year, the Society announces six teacher training courses in sight-saving classes, in which it will participate. Elementary courses will be offered at Western Reserve university, Cleveland; Wayne University, Detroit; and Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City. Advanced courses are offered at Western Reserve and Teachers College. The elementary courses at Western Reserve are on Administration and Teaching of SightSaving Classes, and Eye Hygiene. The first course is planned for teachers who desire training in methods of teaching sight-saving classes and the adaptation of the regular school curriculum to the needs of children with serious eye difficulties. A demonstration sight-saving class will be conducted as an important part of the course. Registrants receive 4 semester hours credit for the completion of this course. Eye Hygiene includes lectures on eye health, anatomy and common diseases of the eye, and refraction. Students have an opportunity to observe eye clinics. This course is not only open to registrants in the sight-saving class course, but also to nurses and medical social workers, and offers 2 semester hours credit. At Wayne University, a course on Sight-Saving Procedure is for the preparation of supervisors and teachers of sight-saving classes, and for those already in the field who desire further training. Essentially like the Western Reserve four-hour course, it combines eye hygiene materials, and offers 6 points credit. Teachers College also offers a combined elementary course in Sight-Saving Classes, which includes organization and administration, equipment, publicity, and relation to public agencies. No clinical work is given since the clinical course on the eye is not offered in 1937. The course offers 6 points credit. Mrs. Hathaway is director of the advanced course offered at Western Reserve this summer, and Doctor Abram B. Bruner is the director of medical work. This course offers open discussion of teacher problems in sight-saving classes, and gives advanced work, with clinical observation in the study of eye defects and diseases, with a discussion of some of the scientific advances in medical and surgical eye work and optical aids. Through the cooperation of the Nela Park Laboratories at Cleveland, a three-day lighting institute will be held and special lectures given on modern principles of illumination. The course has a limited enrollment, and offers 6 semester hours credit. An advanced course on the Activity Program in Sight-Saving Classes is offered at Teachers College, with Merle E. Frampton, PhD. as general adviser, and Doctor Hugh Grant Rowell as associate adviser. The course is devoted to a study of the philosophy and methods of the activity program as adapted to sight-saving class work. 2 points credit are granted. The National Society for the Prevention of Blindness is a valuable source of ewucational material. It publishes and distributes some 200 publications--reprints, pamphlets, charts, etc.--prepared for both professional and lay groups. Most of these materials may be purchased at reductions of from 10 per cent to one-third off on quantity orders. annotated list for 1937 (Publication No. 32) may be obtained free of charge. An Any group looking for posters will find an interesting series available from the Society. These range in size from 8 x 11 inches to 20 x 28 inches, and are aimed at some of the outstanding causes of blindness--Accidents, Fireworks, Self-Diagnosis and Treatment, and the Roller Towel. The Industrial Eye Protection series consists of five posters 8 x 11 inches, convenient fo. display on crowded bulletin boards. Prices are nominal, and those interested can get a detailed list upon request. From the same source, health educators can borrow films, slides, and exhibits. A tworeel motion picture film, "Preventing Blindness and Saving Sight", may be obtained in either 16 mm or 35 mm size. It shows vision defects and their correction; eye diseases, notably trachoma, and their prevention; rules for eye health through proper illumination; eye care and preventive measures in childhood and old age; and industrial eye protection. Popular treatment makes it suitable for lay audiences and high schools as well as for professional groups. The film may be borrowed free of charge, the borrower paying shipping charges both ways. If no projector is available, or if a lecture is contemplated, health educators may borrow as many as 60 stereopticon slides depicting many phases of sight conservation. The subjects offered include: (1) Ophthalmia Neonatorum; (2) Trachoma; (3) Accidents; (4) Play Accidents; (5) Illumination; (6) School Children; (7) Vision Charts; (8) Sight-Saving Classes; (9) The Blind; (10) Pre-school Children; and (11) General and Technical Topics. The society will send the borrower an itemized list of any topic so that individual slides, illustrating the points he wishes to bring out, may be selected. The borrower pays shipping charges only, and is responsible for breakage Slides may be purchased at cost- 25 cents each. Ten exhibit units from the Society's permanent exhibit library are available to responsible groups, at no expense except for shipping. Each unit presents a particular aspect of sight conservation, and one or more units may be borrowed for special occasions. Specially prepared mounted displays, consisting of six or seven puolications most illustrative of the subject presented, on colored boards 22 x 28 inches are donated free of charge, except for transportation costs. When necessary, more than one display is provided. Inquiries from any interested group concerning the educational aids offered by the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness should be addressed to 50 West 50th Street, New York City. TRAINING IN HEALTH EDUCATION FOR THE PROSPECTIVE FLORENCE STEIN, R.N. Chief consultant Nurse, State Department of Health, Arizona Passage of the Social Security Act has placed health education definitely in the foreground as a function of government. As a basic objective of public health this phase of education has been afforded a momentum which, in time, is bound to make inroads on ignorance and on disease and to make improvement in the status of health, the country over. Most States have already passed such measures as will entitle them to full participation in the benefits of the funds available under the provisions of this Act. In so doing, States have, in many instances, modernized and improved outmoded public health systems. It is now possible that all areas of a State may receive some type of public health service. In the past, the wealthier cities and counties have been the more favored. Standards have been raised in the qualifications of those serving in public health positions. As a result of this, schools of public health are filled with students. Many of these have worked for many years in the public health field but up to this time have done so without the benefit of courses in public health. Hundreds of public health workers, under the Social Security Act, now receive stipends which enable them to secure training in public health. As a result of this, "going back to school", has become popular with doctors, nurses and sanitarians. Although the Social Security Act has thus stimulated further education for health workers and the study of the educational approach to health problems, the emphasis in health programs has for some time been shifting from one of a health service program to one with increasing emphasis on health education as the central core of the entire program. Health educators occupy prominent positions in many State health departments. They are often found in the county health units, working in conjunction with boards of education. Methods of teaching and the scientific approach to the teaching of health problems are subjects commonly found in the staff education discussions of public health nurses. As a result of the emphasis on teaching method the nurses have discovered, as teachers have long since learned, that the best teaching is built around the immediate interests and needs of the individual, rather than upon the old plan of a stereotyped course of lecture material or health rules. Since health education is a primary objective in tne program of the official health agency and also of the training of teachers of physical education, certainly a close working arrangement between these two institutions is possible and desirable to the greater accomplishment and efficiency of both. Each has a definite contribution to make. The official health agency should be aware of what preparation future teachers receive for actual experience with health problems of the school or community Methods of teaching which carry over into the field of public health are the contribution of the teacher training school. At the same time the future physical education teacher should be as familiar with the health problems peculiar to any age group as he is with what ideals and development he hopes to accomplish through the activity program. In other words, he should readily recognize that the pre-school age is the most important age for protection against diphtheria and why; that tuberculosis is a problem of age groups from 15 to 25 years. He should know *Read before the Teacher Training Section of the Southern District Convention of American Physical Education Association at Houston, Texas, March 19, 1937. |