The problem of medical social service is to learn the social condition of the patient, and to relate that knowledge to his medical condition in order that restoration to health and return to normal family and community relationships shall go hand in hand. A division of medical social service became active a week after the disaster, its workers becoming attached to the several emergency hospitals within the city itself and those established in nearby towns. It had as well a working relationship with the military and the permanent Halifax hospitals. Three thousand patients were cared for in twelve Halifax hospitals alone. Trained medical social workers interviewed eight hundred. The one question to which they sought an answer was: “How shall these patients be brought back again as fully as possible into normal lives and relationships?” Having obtained an answer as best they could, the effort was made to help and relieve to the fullest extent that service and science made possible.

The contribution of medical social service was two-fold, immediate assistance and education. By the latter service, which represents the more permanent value to the community, very valuable information and guidance was given to the Halifax Medical Society and the children's and nursing interests. The improvements resulting from these efforts cannot fail to make “follow-up” and “after-care” important considerations in the public health and dispensary work of the future.

Immediate assistance was given by the medical social service in six ways:

  1. Arranging for clothing and shelter prior to discharge from hospital.
  2. Interviews to understand medical social needs.
  3. Arranging about eye problems with the committee on the blind, children's problems with the children's committee, family problems with the rehabilitation committee, etc.
  4. Making a census of the handicapped, and classifying the returns.
  5. Placing responsibility for follow-up and after-care.
  6. Intensive case work where social problems involved a medical situation.

Dr. M. M. Davis, Jr. Director of the Boston Dispensary, writes of the medical social service as follows:

It may well be concluded that no organization or “unit” formed to deal with a flood, fire or explosion or disaster, can hereafter be regarded as complete unless in addition to doctors, nurses, relief workers and administrators there is also a due proportion of trained medical social workers. If twelve years ago medical social service received its baptism, Halifax has been its confirmation day.[117]

The children's service was thorough, as it should have been. If the measure of success in disaster relief is the treatment which the children receive, Halifax relief was above reproach. The children's laws of the province are carefully drawn and adequate, the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children is a man of singular ability and has wide powers. He became chairman of a strong children's committee with which were associated, besides representatives of the children's institutions, two child-welfare workers of high reputation. This committee came in contact with upwards of five hundred families, including more than fifteen hundred children. Their work dealt with the special problems listed below. More permanent supervision was assumed by the Government Commission about five months after the disaster. The modern principle of the widest possible child-placing was encouraged, the effort being to keep children with parents and wherever necessary to subsidize families rather than institutions.

The work of the children's committee consisted of

  1. Getting urgent temporary repairs made to existing children's institutions.
  2. Investigating cases to ascertain if children were in proper custody and receiving proper care.
  3. Procuring necessary articles of clothing, etc., for children.
  4. Hunting for “missing” children, identifying “unclaimed” children, and restoring children to their parents.
  5. Interviewing hundreds of people who were: (a) hunting for lost children; (b) wishing to adopt homeless children; (c) arranging for the care of children.
  6. Attending to a large correspondence, mostly regarding the adoption of children, for which upwards of a thousand applications were received.
  7. Arranging for and supervising the transfer of children from hospitals, shelters, etc., the committee in most cases having sent some one to accompany the children.
  8. Arranging for temporary maintenance, permanent care, pensions and compensations or allowances for children, including the finding of permanent homes.
  9. Locating and referring to the proper agencies a number of wounded children.
  10. Getting possession of children unlawfully taken possession of by improper persons.
  11. Arranging for the proper guardianship of certain children.[118]

The problem of the blind, was a special feature of the Halifax disaster. Blindness frequently resulted from the blizzard of glass which caused so great a percentage of the wounds. In large proportion the wounded were women who were engaged in their household duties. The rehabilitation of the blind presented problems of care and retraining upon which was concentrated the skill of three superintendents of important institutions for the blind as well as other specialists and workers. The presence in Halifax of a school for the blind with a capable president facilitated greatly an early grappling with the problem. The contributions of the social workers were chiefly of the character already indicated such as that of general medical social service. There were reported on March first, six hundred and thirty-three registrants,[119] but owing to the difficulties of registration this figure remains inexact.