Information Sheet

 

 

R         Washington County Health Council (Mo.).

381                  Papers, 1932‑1969.

                                    Eighteen folders and two volumes.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are financial records, minutes of meetings, and miscellaneous papers of the Washing­ton County Health Council, a volunteer organization which began in 1937 as the Advisory Coun­cil of Public Health and Child Welfare.  The collection includes papers of the Washington County Nursing Service, 1939‑1942, and the annual reports of the Washington County Health Department, 1949‑1958.

The Advisory Council of Public Health and Child Welfare was organized at Potosi in 1937.  It was a volunteer group composed of citizens concerned with community health mat­ters, with par­ticular at­tention paid to school‑age children in the old mining areas of Washing­ton County.  The council sponsored the employment of a child wel­fare worker and county health nurse.  The council assisted in arrang­ing funding for these workers, whose salaries had formerly been paid by the state and federal government.  After 1940, the local area provided one‑third of the necessary funding for the program, which was administered as the Washington County Health Unit.  The Washington County Farm Bureau sponsored the unit in 1949 and 1950.

The health unit was reorganized in the 1950s as the Washington County Health Depart­ment, a permanent, tax‑supported operation.  The Advisory Council evolved into the Washing­ton County Health Council, an advisory group without administrative authority.  It was com­posed of private citizens and representatives of service organizations, volunteer agencies and professional groups.  Its primary purpose was to facilitate health planning in Washington County, and to as­sist in coor­dinating the efforts of private, local, state and federal public health initiatives.

The Washington County Health Council and allied organizations consistently supported child‑care and disease prevention programs.  The earliest efforts, in concert with the Washing­ton County Nursing Service, involved pre‑natal care, birth registration, infant care, and home hy­giene.  Through the schools and by community clinics, diagnosis and treatment were offered to sufferers of tuberculosis, trachoma, polio, rheumatic fever, and venereal disease.  Immuni­zation programs were begun, and fluoride treatments and dental care were made avail­able for school children.  Clinics were also offered for crippled and retarded children.

The papers of the Washington County Health Council consist of financial records and min­utes of meetings of the advisory and health councils, miscellaneous papers and photo­graphs, an­nual reports of the Washington County Health Department, and scrapbooks con­taining news­pa­per clippings concerning the various public health programs and organizations which operated in Washington County.  Most of the col­lection pertains to activities from 1939 to 1969, but the ear­li­est items are two photographs of the Washington County tonsil clinic held at the courthouse in Potosi in 1932.  There are only a few records for the early 1950s.  The scrapbooks are the most useful items for an overview of public health programs in Washington County.

 

 

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