View report page

EMPLOYMENT FOR THE ELDERLY
Suitable occupation is an essential for a healthy
existence. The majority of people who reach pensionable
age continue to be fit for work for some years, but as
they become older, frailty, failing eyesight and a slowing
down of mental faculties determine the amount and
type of work they can do.
Employment schemes for the elderly are particularly
important for those who have made no preparation for
retirement and have no hobbies or outside interests.
People in this category need an opportunity of doing a
little work immediately after retirement otherwise mental
and physical changes are liable to take plåce prematurely.
Loneliness is one of the main factors in precipitating
senility, and light work in company with others is one of
the most useful means of combatting it. The psychological
effects of occupation are considerable; they offsèt the
feeling of not being wanted and no longer being a useful
member of the community.
The Council recognised the need in this Borough for
providing light occupation for the elderly and at their
instigation an Association was formed, representing
various organisations in the area, to set up a suitable
scheme. The objects of this Association, which is
subsidised by the Council, are to promote, manage and
assist a scheme to provide elderly persons resident in
the Borough through the medium of remunerative employment
under protected conditions with facilities for physical
and mental recreation, to relieve poverty and distress,
provide meals and to pursue any objects which are deemed
to be charitable.
Arrangements were put in hand to establish a centre
at Cambridge House, Camberwell Road, and it is hoped that
when this project has been successfully launched, similar
centres will be set up in other parts of the Borough.
It must be remembered that the success of a venture
of this kind depends on the co-operation of industrial
undertakings in providing suitable outwork for these old
people. However, similar schemes are already in operation
in some other areas, and whilst they meet only a very
small proportion of the need, they are proving extremely