HEALTH

NEW HAVEN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Vol. LV, No. 3	March, 1928

This article excerpted from p. 6 of the issue.

The New Haven Visiting Nurse Association has a generalized service including five distinct programs: Child Welfare, Bedside, Tuberculosis, Home Economics, and Hourly. In connection with the Child Welfare program, two Prenatal Conferences a week were carried during 1927, one being financed by the Junior League. Fourteen Well-Baby Conferences were held each week and nine Pre-school Conferences. The attendance at the Well-Baby Conferences was 20,564 and at the Pre-school 3,330. A Physician and nurse are in attendance at each conference. At the Pre-school Conference where diet is so much a matter of consideration, a Home Economics worker is also present.

In connection with the Prenatal Conference, financed by the junior League, a class for prospective mothers is being carried. This class consists of eight talks, dealing with what the prospective mother should know about the coming of the new baby. Clothing, proper exercise, and food are discussed.

During the year, 113,724 visits were made in the home. Most of these visits were to acutely ill patients but about sixty chronics are always on the list.

The Association carried 544 patients with tuberculosis and 1180 patients who had been exposed to tuberculosis.

The Home Economics Department has a force of workers. The dietitians plan diets, teach value of budgets, teach buying, preparation, and care of food. The Visiting Housekeepers help keep the home in order, prepare the meals, wash baby clothes, care for the children while the mother goes to the doctor or takes the children for treatment. The length of visit is from two to four hours and the charge is 35 cents an hour. Free service is given to families unable to pay. During the year, 5060 visits were made to 677 families.

Hourly Nursing, carried for a year by the Central Registry for Nurses, was taken over by the Association in November. The Hourly Service means that a patient may have a Visiting Nurse at any definitely specified hour between 8:00 A. M. and 8:00 P. M. by paying $1.50 for the first hour and $1.00 for each succeeding hour, the time limit being four hours. Extra nurses have been employed so that the Hourly Service will not take the nurses from those who need the care but are unable to pay.

MARY GRACE HILLS, Supt.