Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

HOSPITAL SOCIAL SERVICE IN FRANCE-NOUFFLARD

35

The results we have obtained are due chiefly to the excellent qualities of our
workers. We have a picked staff, chosen from the Amyot and Chaptal schools, the
School of the Comite National, the School of Puericulture in Paris, the Florence
Nightingale School in Bordeaux. Each worker has a personality which we try to
develop. Though the basis of the work is the same, the work differs according to the
patient's needs and the doctor's comprehension of social service.
In Dr. Rist's and Dr. Armand-Delille's Services, also in Professor Convelaire's
at Baudelocque Maternity, the workers are prompted to gather all medical information
from the different clinics through which the patient has passed, so that no previous
diagnosis should escape the doctor's knowledge. They are prompted also to investigate
and report on the psychology of the patient, on his mentality toward treatment,
or toward resuming work after a lengthy stay in a sanatorium, or having been for a
long spell discharged from duty.
So, to keep in constant touch with our workers, our mornings are devoted to going
the rounds of the hospitals. Once a week they meet in our office, each section separately, to discuss their case work. Once a month all the workers meet together to
get well acquainted with one another, and help to solve the problems of a family
who comes under the obstetrical, the tuberculosis, and the child welfare division.
These meetings are presided over occasionally by one of the doctors most interested in
social work. Our workers hand us in every month a detailed report on their work.
These reports are summed up every quarter to be read and discussed at our committee
meetings, which are held regularly four times a year.
Our office, at 44, Rue de Lisbonne, Paris, is open daily from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M.
and 2 P.M. to 6 P.M., Saturday afternoon excepted. A staff of three people is always on
hand to give out all information applied for by numerous callers. A set of files of
all charitable organizations, kept up to date, can be consulted on the spot. The
office takes charge of all the individual cases that do not come directly under the head
of a hospital social service, many very deserving cases having been helped and provided
for through this channel.
Professor Sergent, Professor Bezangon, Professor Leon Bernard, Professor Convelaire, Professor Jeannin, Professor Marfen, Professor Nobecourt, Dr. Rist, and Dr.
Guinon, all say that social service has entirely changed the atmosphere of the hospital
wards, and that its influence on the students is very marked. We are very fortunate
to work under their direction and to find so much keen and kindly interest shown us in
our work. We hope to make hospital social service better known, and more appreciated every day.
We are far younger in the field than you are, but we are doing our best to make up
for lost time. Mme Georges Getting, who was extremely sorry not to be able to
attend this congress, pressed our committee to delegate me, not only to put before you
the work that you entrusted to her, but also for me to gain more knowledge through
your experience. Mme Getting is the soul of social work, and devotes all her time and
advice to our work. She knows how to awaken the interest of everybody, and has the
best influence over the social workers. We owe to her, alone, the work we have built
up today. I hope that soon we shall see some of you among us in Paris, and that you
will then see for yourselves the work we try to accomplish, after your example, for
the good of humanity.
Allow me, before closing, to express our deepest gratitude for all you did for us
during the war. Whenever I have met some of you at home, I have tried to convey