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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 23 | Number 3 Article 1August 1956The Parochial School Health Committee of TheCatholic Physicians' Guild of New Orleans ItsFormation and ActivitiesCatholic Physicians' GuildsFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationCatholic Physicians' Guilds (1956) "The Parochial School Health Committee of The Catholic Physicians' Guild of New Orleans ItsFormation and Activities," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 23 : No. 3 , Article 1.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol23/iss3/1The Parochial School Health Committee of Th-1 Catholic Physicians' Guild of New Orleans Its Formation and Activities* D URING the middle of the year 1951, through the coopera-tion and guida nce of Msgr. Henry C. Bezou, the Archdiocesean Superintendent of Schools of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a group of Catholic physicians de-cided to undertake a Health Pro-gram for the Catholic Schools of the greater New Orleans area. The need for such a program seemed obvious. A special survey of the Public School health conditions had been made in 1949, and it is possible that the results of this s urvey provided an impetus, through the Archdiocesean Super-intendent, for the initiation of this effort. The first meeting was held on June 14, 1951. This and all subsequent meetings of the group have been held in the office of the Superintendent. The objects of the program were stated as follows: I. To promote a program of physical examinations of all paro-chial school children : 2. To encourage parents to bring their children to their family physicians for this examination; 3. To furnish this service for those children whose parents were 'This report was prepared by Ors. James T . N ix, Nick J. Accardo, and W . H . Harris, Jr., who have served terms as chairman of the Parochial School Hea lth Committee. 66 unable to afford private med cal care; 4. To standardize measures for emergency medical care; 5. To educate the child, his family and teacher in health 1 al-ters. The initial group consiste, of approximatel y ten physic. ms. From this beginning, the grour has grown to one of some eighty hy-sicians who participate in the )ro-gram in one capacity or ano her. The Chairman of the Health C om-mittee of the Catholic Schools Co-operative Clubs also attends the meetings of the group. The r:neet-ings are held approximately four times during the year. These r •eet-ings are largely for the purpo~e of formulating plans and policie!> and giving direction to the activities of the group. At the present time. the group has come to be known as the Parochial School H ealth Committee and is now a C ommit-tee of the Catholic Physicians' Guild ( since 1953). Most o f the participating physicians are m em-bers of the Catholic Physicians' Guild b.ut there is an appreciable number of non-Catholic physicians who have also taken part in this program. Member physicians are assigned one or more schools , pref-erably in the environs o f their LINACRE QUARTERLY home or office. These physicians are responsible for the health pro-gram in these schools. In order to maintain continuity and to accom-plish good school-physician rela-tionship, the assignments are not rotated. Activities The present activities of the Pa-rochial School Health Committee consist of the following : 1 ). Physi c al exam i n ation s . Physical examinati ons are pro-vided for children in the Parochial and some of the priva te Catholic schools in [Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard (Civil ) J Parishes in the area of greater N ew Orleans. This comprises a group of sixty-nine schools. Until this year. in all but one school, only children in the first grade have been ex-amined. The total school popula-tion for elementary schools in this . area in the parochia l and private schools is approxima tely 38,000. It is therefore estima ted that ap-proximately four to five thousand children are in the first grade in this group. From the beginning. the committee has emphas ized that these children should be examined by their private physicians. The function of the committee in this activity has been to examine those children who .are not taken care of by their private physicians. The examinations are recorded on the Louisiana State Department of Health Student Health Record forms, provided by the Health De-partment. The health records are kept on file in each school. 1 n 1954-55,. 2,597 children w ere ex-amined in this program. Previous Years showed a somewhat higher AUGUST, 1956 number of children examined. I t is obvious that not 50'}{- of the children in these schools are from families unable to provide for this examination by their private phy-sicians. However, the Committee has taken the attitude that it is better to examine the children, af-ter the parents have been urged but have failed to have the exam-ination done by a private physi-cian, rather than let the children go unexamined at all. Actually, there has been a gradual decrease in the number of children exam-ined each year, although the num-ber of school s covered has in-creased; thus, parents are being gradually educated to the idea of a routine physical examination for their children. The leading defects which have been found from year to year are: dental caries, enlarged tonsils, or-thopedic defects, especially poor posture, intestinal parasites, and skin rashes. At the time of the examination, a lso, the immuniza-tion record of each child is re-viewed and it has been consistently noted that a fairly large number of the children lack proper immun-izations ( perhaps 3 to 4% ). 2). Visual Program. From the be ginning, there has been an Opthalmologist in the Committee. The visual program has taken the form of a routine eye examination, using the M assachusetts test. Each school has been urged to procure the inexpensive equipment needed for this test. The Opthalmologist has made talks to parent groups and has made available office time to representatives from the schools_ in order to instruct people in each 67 I / school 1 1 the use of the equip-ment for .he test. The test is then conductc . by these people in their respective schools. Many of the schools h ·e taken advanta ge of this oppo, •nity, though the re-sponse here has been less than it should be. 3). H earing Program. The hear-ing program was started two years ago. At this time, two Otolaryn-gologists became interested in the work of the Committee and offered to conduct the hearing program. Through their efforts and with the aid of audiometers purchased by the Catholic Schools Cooperative Clubs. the hearing tests have been conducted on a large number of the children not only in the first grade but in the other grades of the schools of this area. T eams of lay-ladies, from the various Moth-ers' Clubs, instructed in the use of these machines, conduct the initia l screening examinations. Those children who do not pass the screening test are then brought to the Otolaryngologist for a more detailed test in a sound-proof room. Some 3,500 children are given the screening test each year. In 1954, 200 of these did not pass the screening test. Of these 200, about I 00 came in for the recheck and of these, 50 showed definite defects. Of these 50 children, only 11 were cases in which the parents were actually aware of the hearing problem of their children. This month, through a generous dona-tion, the Archdiocesan School Sys-tem has acquired a bus in which a sound-proof booth for audio test-ing will be installed. This will be known as the H ealthmobile. 68 4) . Laboratory E xamination . A stool and urine examination ; provided by the State H ealth D , · partment Laboratories for all fir c grade children. The Chairman < f the H ealth Committee of the Cat l · olic Schools Cooperative C lubs a · ranges the schedule for the schoc s with the H ealth Department f r the submission of these specime s for examination. These examin -tions have been valuable, with t ,e finding of parasites in two to t n percent of the children in varic' is years. 5). Dental Program. From 1e beginning. it became obvious t' 'I t dental caries was the most comrr ,n defect which was found in th 3e children. In 1954, a dentist joii :d the Committee and through his :£-forts the Dental Society of t 1is area undertook to conduct a "d n-tal health day" for the Paroc1 ial schools. This is to be an ann 1al activity. Last year some 40 or 50 dentists cooperated in carrying Jut this work. It was r eported t'1at perhaps as high as 85 to 90% of the children examined by the c:len-tists showed need for dental c.,re. A major problem, of course, is l•ow to provide the needed dental care in such a large group. Efforts will be made in this direction in the future. 6). Other activities. A mong the members of the Committee is a Neuropsychiatrist. H e has given a talk to the principals of the schools in this area, stressing some of the possible problems in children in this field. H e has offered to co-operate with the various scho~ls in working out any problems w hich are brought to his attention. L INACRE Q UARTERLY Committee. Approximately , half this number of children returned for the second dose, an d about 2,700 for the third dose. The entire health program uses community services, volunteer per-sonnel, and is conducted without cost to the Archdiocese. The Committee has also func-tioned in an advisory capacity at times for the Archdiocesean Su-perintendent of Schools. Fluorida-tion of water supply, for example, has met with considerable discus-sion in this area. The Superin-tendent was interested in obtaining the views of the Parochial School Health Committee in this matter . Of course, it seemed to the Com-mittee that such a step would be highl y beneficial, particularly in view of the high ra te of dental caries in these children . Summary and Conclusion The P arochial School H ealth Committee of the Catholic Physi-cians ' Guild of New Orleans pro-vides an important service in the field of routine physical examina-tions, visual and hearing programs and routine dental examinations. It is available in an advisory ca-pacity in health matters to the Archdiocesean Superintendent of Schools. Each year the program of the Committee has tended to ex-pand somewhat. It is earnestly hoped that better health in the P arochial school children, the real aim of this Committee, is being steadily accomplished. The Committee functioned in a somewhat emergenc y capacity during the past year, when the Salk Poliomyelitis vaccine beca me available to the school children of the first and second grades. T be Archdiocesean Superintendent turned naturally to the Parochial School Health Committee for the administration of this vaccine to tlie Catholic school children, since the Health D epartment did not have sufficient personnel to cover our schools. During this time, 80me 7.500 to 8,000 children were given their first dose of the vac-cine through the efforts of this AucusT, I 956 It is hoped also that this report may be stimulus to other Catholic Physic ians' Guilds to organize similar projects fo r Catholic schools in their area. 69 

The Parochial School Health Committee of The Catholic Physicians\u27 Guild of New Orleans
      Its Formation and Activities

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The Parochial School Health Committee of The Catholic Physicians\u27 Guild of New Orleans Its Formation and Activities

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