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Removal to Institutions of Aged, Infirm or
Physically Incapacitated Persons.
During the year 25 cases were brought to the notice of the
Public Health Department of aged and infirm persons living in
unsatisfactory conditions. The homes of these aged people were
visited by the Sanitary Inspectors and every possible step was
taken to assist them.
The considerable increase in the number of old people in
recent years is giving rise to new social and public health problems.
As people get older they become more and more dependent
on others for assistance. Their physical condition does
not allow them to continue to perform manual work and eventually
the time arrives when they can no longer keep their homes
or themselves clean.
There was a time when old people were respected members
of the family and it was considered a pleasant duty for relatives
to look after them. This state of affairs, for a variety of reasons,
no longer exists in many cases, and more and more does the duty
of caring for these old people fall upon the public health authorities.
Such duty should be the provision of accommodation
specially designed for old people on a community basis, the
establishment of hostels, rest rooms, and amenities such as
domestic helps to assist them in carrying out those household
duties of which they are no longer physically capable, and
arrangements for the provision of hot meals delivered in containers
at the door. Medical and nursing attention are now
available under the provisions of the National Health Service
Act, 1946.
By the provision and extension of these services the last
years of poor and lonely old people who are apparently healthy,
although feeble or infirm, can be made happy and comfortable
until near the time of their deaths.
In spite of all the attention that can be given to old persons
at home, cases are discovered where institutional care is the only
solution. Included among these are patients with an acute illness
and chronics suffering from crippledom, mental derangements of
various forms, incontinence, etc., for whom continuous hospital
treatment is necessary.
Occasionally old people are found who resent assistance of
any kind and repeatedly refuse the offer of institutional accommodation.
In these instances action eventually has to be taken
under Section 47 of the National Assistance Act, 1948, for their
compulsory removal from the premises in which they are residing
in their own interests and in order to prevent injury to the health
of, or serious nuisance to, other persons living in the house.
Fortunately, it did not become necessary during the year to deal
with any case in this way.