| In 1947, the Hadassah Medical Organization of Israel opened, in its hospital area, five district medical stations staffed by public health nurses and general practitioners. These are now expanding into community health centres whose development will depend on the results of a pilot project in Beth Mazmil. Here a health centre with two teams, each made up of a general physician, two public health nurses, an health educator, and psychiatric social worker, functions on the following principles: one agency is responsible for all aspects of community health; personal and environmental health are interdependent; the whole family is the subject of medical care, which continues throughout life; and health is positively promoted. The project is to be used as field training for undergraduate students and for research in the relief of family and community tensions. |