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Archival description
West Coast Medical Historical Society oral history collection Public welfare--British Columbia
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Doris Mellish interview

CALL NUMBER: T1988:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Doris Mellish, General Medicine, Vancouver PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1970 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-01-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Personal background; nurses training and early job experiences; life on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island; health care on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island; involvement with the Vancouver Health League; mental health; amalgamation of city health and school health; start of Mental Health committee; description of Parent Teachers Association; parent education courses. TRACK 2: ; Description of courses; formation of Vancouver Health League and the Community Chest; Council of Social Agencies; smallpox epidemics of 1919 and 1932; vaccinations for small pox; school vaccination; Cancer Foundation; BC Cancer Society; Tranquille. CALL NUMBER: T1988:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Doris Mellish, General Medicine, Vancouver PERIOD COVERED: 1950-1976 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-01-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Community program takeover by government; choosing members of family service organisations; payment for services by government; availability of services throughout BC; care of aged; nutrition; results of Conference of Aged; law resulting from the study of facilities; nutrition in Vancouver; fluoridation. TRACK 2: Fluoridation; water pollution; registry of disabled children; handicapped aids; building codes for handicapped; residential treatment for disturbed children. CALL NUMBER: T1988:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Doris Mellish, General Medicine, Vancouver PERIOD COVERED: 1940-1976 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-01-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Vancouver Health League; mental health; house for residential treatment; mentally retarded; formation of BC Mental Health Association; volunteers for mental health centres; preventorium; Sunnyhill; formation of Victoria Order of Nurses; industrial health in Vancouver; Community Chest organisations. TRACK 2: Community Chest; changes and budget deficits; opinions of resource boards; Community Chest; future.

Lenore Patterson interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Co-ordinator of Health Care Services, Vancouver Resources Board RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1976-04-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Background; brief career as a dietitian here and in UK; involvement in dental care; came to Vancouver and became a nutritionist with Catholic Child Care; last year, 1975, became the head of dietetics in the Vancouver Resources Board. Health care as it was before integration last year; decentralisation (see Foulkes Report) responsible for reorganisation of social services; mandate of Resources Board; 14 local offices and 5 special offices; Mincome delivered at Dunsmuir Street office; advent of resources boards, and their disbandment; definition of health care according to resource boards, defined by programs: old people's care and children. Staff of specialists in psychiatry department, to help children; work closely with all community resources; public health nurses' duties. Adult; care resource homes: Taylor Manor and Kinna Mair. Nutritionists help recipients and community groups to budget food and balance with goodness; also help baby home. Children in care of the Resources Board present with a variety of health problems. One medical clinic under Resources Board; one full-time physician and a part-time pediatrician. Dental health arranged. Post-partum group handles new mothers with problems; program for counseling these women. Types of problems handled. Men's group started. Child abuse dealt with. TRACK 2: Other programs of Resources board: nutrition program for healthy babies; drug and alcohol abuse an ongoing problem. Taylor Manor, for adults with mental and physical problems who are not able to function in the community, and are not expected to get into the community; 894 new contacts in 1974 under the psychiatric counseling. Taylor Manor has 58 beds and a waiting list; government pays for all. Per diem rate for five levels of care, set by government. Relations with other community health services. More involvement with Attorney-General's Department hoped for. Future of Resources Board.

May Humphreys interview

CALL NUMBER: T2013:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Health care and social assistance PERIOD COVERED: 1928-1960 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-02-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Brief personal introduction with a description of UBC in 1928 and the decision to go into nurses training at VGH in 1929; includes a description of courses, hours, and discipline; job shortages of the Depression years and the decision to study public health at McGill from 1931 to 1933; work in Family Services in Montreal; description of service; religious divisions, problems in Griffintown; juveniles and comparison with Vancouver; job offers and the return to Vancouver; out-patients at VGH in 1936, with a description of buildings, patients, dental clinic, staff, volunteers and cup of soup; joined the City Relief Department in 1937 and describes the staff under the direction of Dr. Jack Muscovitch. TRACK 2: Social workers and the medical section with mention of responsibilities and services; effects of the Depression on people, allowances, violent attitudes; reporters; unique service of medical section; doctors services and medical histories; post-war years; employment on the Sea Wall; mental assessments; placement program growth out of VGH overcrowding; problems in regulating; lack of staff; numbers of clients; anecdotes on persuading people to enter boarding homes; atmosphere at placement institutions; night school courses; private homes, problems associated with uprooting and adjustment of elder clients. CALL NUMBER: T2013:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Health care and social assistance PERIOD COVERED: 1935-1976 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-02-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Conclusion of anecdote; role with alcoholics and Salt Spring Farm; hospital; drunk tank; need for a cleansing station; social life in boarding houses; sitting room regulations; recreation and; the role of volunteer organisations; effects of the Second World War and the reduction in staff; changes in public attitude; rise in young people on relief; increase in professional social workers; involvement in rationing and accompanying anecdote; changes in the services; dental plan; appliances; caseloads; increases in allowances; clothing allowances; nutrition services; referral resources; relationship with the Metropolitan Health Department; consultation, referrals, overlapping interests; geriatrics. TRACK 2: Gradual acceptance of geriatric centres; trends in services; attitudes of staff and public; customer orientation of building and furniture; medical aspects of the social assistance program; 60% of clients; promotes health problems; problems of single men; staff experiment living on an allowance; effects on social assistance and trend to younger people in the 1960s and 1970s; lessons learned about human nature with examples of New York and Sweden and the nature of Canadians; summary of medical program; services; abuse; payments.

Rosamond Sarles interview

CALL NUMBER: T2003:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Nutrition and community education PERIOD COVERED: 1939-1970 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-02-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: A brief summary of early education; Bachelor of Home Economics in 1939, and teaching experience from 1941 to 1946; joined the Metropolitan Health Department in August of 1946 and remained until May of 1975; description of the early organisation, IODE, Greater Vancouver Health League; direct services; home visits and a definition of nutrition; a discussion of food values; interest and participation, and the effect of the Second World War; relationship between community and nutritionist and a success story; program for education, newspaper, radio booklets and flimsies; work in school system; rat experiments; classroom work; radio program; use of television; Mrs. Random versus Mrs. Cautious. TRACK 2: Involvement in the lunch program; problems, results and measurements; help for the ethnic community, classifications and response, advice; interpretation and a brief anecdote; involvement in child health centres; services of a nutritionist, popularity, problems and old wives tales; response to the 1960s, day care and youth centres; activities with the Social Assistance program; budgeting, standards and problems, SPARK and defining needs and wants; geriatric problems and counseling service; the relationship of the nutritionist and the community and various social service agencies. CALL NUMBER: T2003:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Nutrition and community education PERIOD COVERED: 1940-1976 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-02-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Cooperation with the BC Nutrition Council on such programs as breast feeding, infant nutrition, vegetarians, and low income; a comparison of federal assistance in the 1940, 1950s and the 1970s; the low cost food plan and a discussion of the proposals and problems; involvement in continuing education at UBC; conferences at Berkley; changes in the goals and priorities of the nutritionist; increased involvement in prenatal and geriatric problems; complexity of problems; additives and enrichment; the changing role of the city; growth of department; special programs and projects; dial-a-dietician; trends in relationship with community; problems and achievements. [TRACK 2: blank.]