1931 - Annual Convention

              74 A L B E R T A W O M E N ' S I N S T I T U T ES
The Sun of Public H e a l t h is rising— but the sun has a long way to go in
the sky of P u b l i c Service. We stil! dwell in the darkness of ignorance. T h i nk
for cue moment of the idea that most people have that the health of little
children, too young to go to school, needs no attention! We think they are
a l l right. That is not true. It is in these years, between the cradle and the
school- room door, that we lose our chance of having a healthy nation.
It is too late, when children come to school, to look after their health.
Better late than never, of course, but we shall never succeed in preventing
disease and securing good health until we take care of the l i t t l e c h i l d r e n and
help their mothers and fathers to care for them from their earliest days.
They Help Us— Here, the Unofficial H e a l t h Organizations have done a
great deal to help us. V i s i t i n g Nurses, School and Home Clubs and Child
W e l f a r e Associations have tried to do something for the pre- school child.
H o w l i t t l e we have been able to do! We shall never succeed until the family
doctor takes the matter in hand and until the fathers and mothers understand
that the family doctor should see the children from time to time and should
give them a periodical examination so that no defect w i l l pass unnoticed, and
that his advice should be followed in regard to the prevention of the so- called
Children's Diseases and the methods of protecting children against these
diseases. He knows. This subject is realized by the Department of Pensions
and National H e a l t h to be so important that the first number of the " L i t t le
Blue Books" Leaflet Series, No. 41, " Keep the F a m i l y W e l l " has been devoted
to it. This publication is now on the press and we hope to send it to you if
3rou ask for it. at an early date.
New Methods— New ways of helping to keep well are developing day by
day. Hospitals are i m p r o v i n g their out- patient departments for the benefit of
those who cannot afford to pay a family physician. Convalescent Hospitals
are being established to safeguard health and save money. In your own P r o ­vince
and other Provinces there are M u n i c i p a l Doctors, M u n i c i p a l Hospitals,
M a t e r n i t y Grants, T r a v e l l i n g Clinics, District Health Units, Public Health
Nurses and many other excellent things. A few patients have been carried to
hospital by airplanes. The first Baby Clinic was held in Taber. A l b e r t a , in
1921, at the request of the Women's Institute, led by Mrs. F . C. Porter. In
these as in everything else, the personnel is the most important thing. If we
can get the right people to manage these plans, if we can get a M u n i c i p al
Doctor, for example, who is the trusted friend and adviser of everybody in
the community, and a Public Health Nurse, who can make herself a friend
and fellow- worker in every home, and a Municipal Hospital which is the
centre of light and health in the community because of the character and
s k i l l and t r a i n i n g of its doctors and nurses, we can do anything.
Thirteen Years— 1918- 1931— How are we getting on in Canada these last
thirteen years? How is the pulse of public opinion beating about Child and
M a t e r n a l Welfare? We know something about it for there is s t i l l in existence
a more or less confidential document dated October 25th, 1918, w- hich gives
some clue to public opinion in Canada before the close of the Great War, in
regard to M a t e r n a l and Child Welfare. It is entitled, " Report to the Vice-
Chairman of the W a r Committee of the Cabinet on the Establishment of a
Federal Department of Public H e a l t h ."
Public Health Work in Fifteen Departments— It shows that the work of
Public H e a l t h was being carried on at that time by fifteen departments at
Ottawa, as follows —