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(22)
OLD PEOPLE'S WELFARE
It ia a pleasure to record that the closest co-operation continues
between voluntary and statutory bodies, thus making existing benefits
and facilities available to all known old people in the Borough.
The Old People's Welfare Committee - a very active Committee
embodies all local action for the welfare of the aged and includes the
establishment of twenty-seven social and luncheon clubs for the elderly.
There are also services operating each year for a Christmas Dinner Party
and Seaside Holidays and, generallyf for Chiropody, Meals-on-Wheels, and
Invalid Meals. A visiting service to the housebound and lonely, loneliness
being a general problem of the elderly, arranges for regular
visits, and these are eagerly looked forward to and are much appreciated.
Information about the needs of old people continues to reach the
Public Health Department. These old people are visited to assess their
need and suitability or necessity for action to be taken under the
National Assistance Acts, 1948 and 1951.

Arrangements were made for the voluntary removal of 101 elderly
people from their homes to:-
Hospitals 68
Homes for the Aged 33
S.O.S. CARD SCHEME
The S.O.S. Card Scheme was started in August with the object of
getting help quickly to elderly people In emergency. This scheme has
proved very successful, and two examples are appended:-
(a) In November last neighbours living opposite an old lady observed
an S.O.S. Card in a front window. A doctor was called and the
old lady was removed to hospital /fi minutes after the first information
on this case was received.
(b) A telephone call was made to this department that an S.O.S.
Card had been seen in a window in the Dawes Road. The old lady was
visited and found to be suffering from shock, and her doctor was
notified immediately.