Medical and Social Services

The home front's medical infrastructure faced unprecedented demands. Military casualties overwhelmed existing hospitals. Civilian health deteriorated through overwork, malnutrition, and epidemic disease. The 1918 influenza pandemic, killing 240,000 French civilians, struck an already weakened population.

Women dominated medical services. Professional nurses, their numbers insufficient, trained volunteers rapidly. Upper-class women, seeking meaningful war contribution, staffed auxiliary hospitals in converted châteaux, schools, and hotels. The Duchess de La Rochefoucauld's hospital at Bois-de-Cise typified aristocratic mobilization—excellent facilities, personal attention, class barriers temporarily suspended.

Working-class districts suffered most. Industrial accidents multiplied as inexperienced workers handled dangerous machinery. Tuberculosis ravaged crowded slums. Infant mortality increased 20% during war years. Dr. Suzanne Noël, pioneering social medicine, documented appalling conditions: "In Belleville, I find families of eight in single rooms, children dying of preventable diseases, mothers working twelve-hour shifts while nursing infants. This is how France treats those producing its victory."

Mental health services, primitive prewar, expanded through necessity. "War neurosis" affected civilians as well as soldiers. Women collapsed from exhaustion and anxiety. Children developed trauma symptoms. Dr. Gustave Roussy established clinics treating civilian psychological casualties, pioneering approaches later standard in psychiatry.

Social services, traditionally religious charity, secularized and expanded. The "Offices de Placement" helped war widows find employment. Crèches allowed working mothers childcare. Soup kitchens fed unemployed. These services, initially emergency measures, established precedents for postwar welfare state development.