The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

February, 1951The Health Bulletinthe National Congress of Parents andTeachers, looking toward the improvementof health services and health educationfor school children. The AmericanMedical Association demonstratedits interest by calling two conferences,one in 1947 and the second in 1949, todefine the role of the practicing physicianin the school health program.FYom these conferences came recommendationsthat every local medicalsociety should appoint a school healthcommittee to study ways in which thephysician's time may be used more effectivelyin the schools. Several localmedical societies in California have alreadyappointed school health committeeswhich are cooperating with theschools in the development of the schoolhealth program.Another promising development inrecent years has been the increase incooperation between schools and healthdepartments in relation to the schoolhealth program. Most states now haveformal plans for cooperation betweenstate health departments and state departmentsof education with respect toschool health programs. In Californiathe closely related work of the StateDepartments of Education and PublicHealth in their responsibilities for thehealth of the school-age child is coordinatedthrough the California StateJoint Committee on School Health.On the local level, an increasing numberof county and city joint schoolhealth councils are being formed inCalifornia. Some have been initiated bythe schools, others by the local healthdepartment. While council representationvaries, it usually includes schooladministrators and teachers, membersof the school health staff, health departmentrepresentatives, parents, representativesof medical and dentalsocieties, voluntary health agencies andother community organizations with aparticular interest in child health.The school health council facilitatesjoint program planning and the formulationof policies to guide the schoolhealth program. Fullest use of communityresources is possible only whenthere is joint planning and active participationof many different communitygroups.Joint planning, with a sharing of responsibilitiesfor different aspects of theprogram, has become a more and morecommon practice, particularly in ruralareas where neither schools nor healthdepartments have sufficient staff or resourcesto carry out an adequate programalone. A division of responsibilitiesand a sharing of personnel betweenschools and health departments makespossible the fullest utilization of existingfacilities and permits the best useof professional skill and time. Almostuniversally, both schools and healthdepartments are under-staffed and cannotafford to use the time of their personnelfor any but the most essentialand most productive activities. Theycaimot afford the luxury of duplicatingservices.However, there are many communitiesin which this fine working relationshipand this spirit of cooperation, which isso conducive to developing the best typeof school health program, do not prevail.Although school health policiesof a general nature have been formulatedand approved by many nationalhealth and education organizations forat least 10 years, and are now wellestablished, they affect school healthpractices in all foo few local areas.Joint planning of school health programswould give an opportunity to reviewand discuss these policies in termsof how well they are fitted to localsituations and to apply those which areworkable.Joint planning opens the way to acritical analysis of the total schoolhealth program with a view of determiningwhat the needs are and thendeciding how best they can be met regardlessof what the traditional patternhas been. Some of the patterns inuse today were established at the turnof the century and do not take intoconsideration the newer knowledge concerningthe growth and developmentand the behavior of children, nor dothey recognize improved school healthmethods and practices, which have demonstratedtheir worth.There have been many recent ad-