The Rotary Balita no. 710 (December 4, 1952)

"Health planning, motivated by official and national recommendations, prescriptions, exhortations or directives, no matter how carefully and scientifically prepared, would amount to very little and would fall far short of real and practical accomplishments if the people, who are the recipients of their objectives, did not participate in them and failed to actively support them," declared Secretary of Health Juan Salcedo. Dr. Salcedo traced the development of Public Health Services which he said had been developed about health problems whose sequences and occurrence had been more or less similar in countries all over the world. He enumerated certain basic disciplines which had uniformly been adopted in practically all public agencies, namely: (a) health education of the public, (b) environmental sanitation, (c) control of communicable diseases, (d) maternal and child health, (e) vital and health statistics, (f) public health nursing. (g) public health laboratories and others. He gave three outstanding fields of our present day trends in public health services which have and will influence greatly the health and happiness of all peoples. He claimed that we are now emerging in an era of social medicine, with the realization that man does not walk in his illness. The problems of convalescent care and of social rehabilitation are as important as the immediate need of curing his illness, he added. "There are the problems of his immediate dependents in terms of economic and social needs," he said. "A man who is sick in body and mind cannot fully enlist his natural physiological defenses if these are being disturbed by other preoccupations, such as fear of social adjustment and worries about the provision of the primary or essential needs of dependents." Dr. Salcedo said that an epileptic, a cardiac, the blind, the hard of hearing, the emotionally or mentally maladjusted, the alcoholic and a gamut of other conditions are problems in social medicine. The issues in- volved in these problems are many and varied but the following are basic for all: adequate home, sufficient income to maintain healthful standards of living, proper facilities for recreation, satisfactory educational opportunities, suitable occupation and a measure of social security. He appealed to the community for their participation and planning for health which is substantially needed for the success of any health program. In making its in- fluence felt, it should take cognizance of certain basic assumptions and should accept its responsibilities regarding them. It should take health as a function of the com- munity's total way of life and should correlate its planning with planning for economic and social well-being. A one-minute silent prayer was observed for the repose of the soul of Hilarion Silayan who died recently. Conchita Rosal and Aristeo Velasco sang a duet entitled "Dalagang Bukid" accompanied on the piano by Reynaldo Reyes. Capt. Kurt Carlsen, hero of the "Flying Enterprise," was a special guest. With the observance of Medicine Day in Rotary, Mike Arnold fined all the "Doctors" regardless of profession. Fined P10.00 each were Drs. Abriol, Ayesa, Vic Buencamino, Campos, GE Eraña, Totti Eraña, Gumer Garcia, Paulino Garcia, Quint Gomez, Romy Gustilo, Ike Icasiano, Nick Jacinto, Oscar Jacinto, AP Reyes, Quitong Reyes, Hermie Velarde, Tony Villarama, Yan Yanzon, Leroy Young, Manoling Lim, Doc Adamson, Rolfing Gonzalez, Emy Javier, Johnny Orendain, Tito Manahan, and "Doctor" Hans Menzi who was fined P20.00. Peg Green of E. R. Squibb and Sons and Earl Carroll of the Philippine American Insurance Company were fined P100.00 each.