Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 40

3clxcl The Back Page M.l.,:.W,Jo.Lrjff(.--v Health Care Agencies Merge and Simplify i i The setting as the Chinese and Americans opened their lahle tennis match Friday night at Cobo Arena In ternational Table i enms: A TV etc Sport for Cobo Arena Before taking on the American table tennis team at Cobo Hall Friday night the visiting Chinese team toured Detroit's inner city by bus, received a warm welcome from Chicanos at the headquarters of Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development, After the tour, they rested before the exciting matches in the evening. Photos by Chief Phalograplicr Tony Spina Stories on Paces 1A and JA 7 tif'tS- 2 ft 2 r7 y.J ,4 SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING appears to be happening in the Detroit Health Department. It looks like it's slowly getting out of the health care business. It's not a planned retreat, and it's not an even one. Nobody lias made any official policy statements on the matter, but some people in the budget and accounting departments acknowledge that yes, it certainly looks that way.

The county has taken over responsibility for air pollution control, is gradually assuming complete responsibility for tuberculosis control, and is expected to take over the venereal disease treatment clinic soon. The city's Bureau of Occupational Health is being phased out, to be replaced by state authority, and in the next month or two, the state will take over the Detroit Psychiatric Institute. Detroit General Hospital is no longer a part of the Health Department, and present plans call for it to be run eventually by an independent board appointed by the city. The Health Department is expanding in other areas, notably In the provision of drug abuse treatment programs. But drug abuse is being handled by many agencies, public and private, and much of the city's money for such treatment is being channeled into these independent agencies.

THIS TREND if it is a trend is not a bad one, nor is it the result of a decision by the city to drop all responsibility for health care. All the functions that the city is turning over to state and county governments have for a long time been the legal responsibility of these governments. The city is simply serving notice that it can no longer carry the expensive burden for health services that state and county governments have been providing in other areas of the state, and should provide in Detroit. Detroit, like most other cities, has been a pioneer in the development of health services for the public. But today, it no longer makes sense for many health services to be directed by city government.

Polluted air does not stop at the city limits. Nor does venereal disease. That being the case, a next logical step from the standpoint of both economics and health care would appear to be the elimination of two separate health departments with overlapping jurisdictions, and the creation of a regional health department that would concern itself with the health problems of the entire area. And this is being done. With the help of a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, the Detroit-Wayne County Health Department Merger Steering Committee is studying the best way and the best time to merge the two health departments.

Such a merger, economically, would probably benefit both governments. At present, city residents pay taxes for the support of both city and county health departments, but for the most part use only city health department facilities. And Wayne County supports a general hospital that is almost half empty, and still must pay for county residents who receive treatment in Detroit facilities. BUT JUST A MERGER of the two health departments will not significantly improve the health care of either city or county residents without something that has been noticeably lacking in both the city's and the county's approach to provision of health care services planning. Instead of taking on or dropping individual health functions as the levels of public funding or public demand vary, why not decide in advance exactly what kinds of comprehensive health services are necessary, and then work towards a single system that would provide all of them? Instead of separate social hygiene, tuberculosis, immunization, and mental health agencies, why not a single facility that would provide all of these services as part of its overall role of meeting all of a group's medical needs? Detroit's Model Neighborhoods Clinic, financed partly with federal funds, could be such a facility.

Many such facilities, serving an entire region, could be an answer to a variety of public health problems. And, while government-financed, they wouldn't have to be run by government. The Model Neighborhoods Clinic isn't. Perhaps, as many health planners believe, government shouldn't be in the health care business at all. Perhaps its most effective role is to plan for the public needs, and then to use its money as a powerful lever to make sure those needs are met.

1 ii V' 'V I i 14 1 4 4 i i i Concentration is the name of the game for one of the Chinese players during his match at Cobo Arena. Thomas Chavez, a minister, gives a bear hug to Li for Social and Economic Development during the Meng-hua, deputy head of the Chinese table tennis team's tour Friday. The team will go to Ann Arbor delegation, at the headquarters of Latin Americans on Saturday. HP faces names It 1 2- Year- El ecti I College Old Boy Wins A ft It iff i rr iiin'fi- -t "1 about it; I don't think they're aware of it. The figures on church attendance are just becoming more realistic, that's all.

I find, especially among young people, that interest and concern about spiritual things is on the increase. I'll take that over statistics any day. And fostering religious faith is part of my concern for America. Daniel Webster said in 1820: "Let us not forget the religious character of our origin." And a greater man than Webster wrote i Proverbs 14:34 that "Righteousness ex-aits a nation." QUESTION You must know how church attendance In our country is decreasing. Aren't you a bit reactionary to promote religious faith, when now that America has come of age we don't seem to need it? T.U.N.

ANSWER Let's not con-fuse chronological age with maturity. As a nation, we'll soon be 200 years old, but the facts of crime and divorce and unrest speak eloquently of our moral retrogression. If we've come of age, as you say, and have acquired a sort of human perfection, tell your police chief or school principal 1 If i is V. if i i jyV- if' I -v A 2-year-old hoy, symbol in a protest against student government, is the winner of the popular vote in the race for student body president at San Diego State College. Brad Tuft collected an estimated 1,200 votes to 811 for runner-up Jeff Robinson, the present student body vice-president.

Student body officials refused to announce the exact total for the boy, who also picked up at least 25 percent of the vote for four other student-body offices. Tuft's candidacy was backed by the advertising-journalism class professor, Dr. Jack Haberstro. Originally the class promoted him as a legitimate candidate to demonstrate that an image could be marketed. The class switched its tactics to make him a protest symbol after a metropolitan newspaper exposed the fact he was a 2-year-old.

The class advertised Tuft in the student newspaper, prepared 70 posters for his candidacy and gained the endorsement of San Diego Chargers football player Deacon Jones. On Wednesday Tuft was named the first honorary Camp Fire Boy in the nation by the Camp Fire Girls of America. Humphrey Covington, a member of the class, called the campaign a success and said it created the largest turnout for a college election 10 years. Astronaut Upgraded A former Georgia Tech student who got a In an engineering course 21 years ago has shown he knows something about complex machines after all. So impressed is the professor who gave him the grade that he wants to raise it to an A.

"In reviewing my past class records I have come upon a 'judgment error I made in the winter quarter of 1051," Dr. Kenneth Jacobs, then an engineering mechanics teacher, wrote to the director of the school of engineering science and mechanics. "I feel that, in the interest of justice the error should be rectified." That student, who was graduated from Tech with highest honors despite the is astronaut John Young, who will lead Sunday's Apollo moon mission. Paid the Price Ruth Eiseman-Schier was freed from prison in MiHedgeville, Friday after serving three years for kidnaping Florida land heiress Barbara Jane Mackle. "I'm not so naive, so foolish as I was," she said.

"I now think before doing something." After walking out the prison door, she was immediately deported to her native Honduras, where she said she plans to do missionary work. Fun at the Sauna What does a man say to a naked lady he meets coming out of a sauna bath? "How are you doing?" was all former Van-derbilt football player Les Lyle could come up with as he was confronted with two nude females In the previously all-male sauna bath at Vandy's McGugin Center in Nashville, Tenn. No one really made sure, but the young women were thought to be Vanderbilt coeds who took seriously a recent athletic department decision opening McGugin's facilities to all students. Bill Kelly, the Vanderbilt equipment manager, said he didn't think there were any men in the sauna when the women strolled in, undressed, and basked in the 180-degree heat. "But it didn't take long for a crowd to gather," Kelly said.

"A lot of people who came to play handball took a sauna before going to the courts. That's usually the procedure after a handball match rarely before." Ciiess Match Up in Air Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation, instructed the organization's secretary to seek a new host country for the first half of the world chess championship match between Bobby Fischer of the United States and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. Saying there was no time for repetition of bid-seeking procedures that had led to the selection of Yugoslavia as the site for the first half of the match and Iceland for the second half, Euwe indicated that the matter would now be resolved on a first-come, first served basis. "Whichever country can agree first to stage the match on conditions which have been arranged can have it straight away," Euwe said in Perth, Australia, during a lecture tour. The action took place one day after cancellation of the first half of the match, which had been scheduled to begin June 22 in Belgrade but had been subjected to protracted negotiation and haggling.

i I lliii ilViniii inhffiiilWiiiinliiftillilwrl ilnuti nun rti ill hi ll'r Uriiii MARRIAGE COUNSELOR COUNSELOR tVZSi P4 "HELLO, LOVELORN COLUMN'? HAVE A PROBLEM'' AP Pnota.