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CARE OF THE AGED
Co-ordination of the Services for Old People
The adequate care of old people is one of the most
difficult medico-social problems of the times. It is also
a problem which is increasing as the proportion, and the
actual number, of people of pensionable age in the community
becomes greater.
The services available should act in two main directions.
Firstly, in the provision of adequate domiciliary
care, not only when old people have become physically
handicapped and infirm, but in the earlier stages in order
that the premature onset of disability, which results in
their being house-bound or bed-ridden, may be prevented.
Secondly, in the making of appropriate arrangements for
hospitalisation and temporary or long-stay institutional
care when illness or frailty make it necessary.
There are many agencies concerned with these mattersboth
voluntary and statutory. It is of the utmost importance
that they should work in a fully co-ordinated manner in
order that old people receive the maximum benefit from
their efforts. Camberwell is very fortunate in having wellorganised
local services including a geriatric hospital,
an oldpeople's welfare committee, old people's clubs (including
one for handicapped persons), an employment scheme
for the elderly, meals-on-wheals and chiropody services,
holiday schemes and arrangements for the cleansing of soiled
linen. The London County Council provides an efficient and
extensive domestic help service. (There are, of course,
many other voluntary activities which play a conspicuous
but insufficiently recognised part). These schemes are
wholly or partly directed by the London County Council
Health and Welfare Departments, the Hospitals' Management
Committee, the Old People's Welfare Committee and voluntary
bodies. The Camberwell Dorough Council participates
by giving financial grants to the Old People's Welfare
Committee, the Employment Scheme for the Elderly and the
King George VI Club.
The Council itself provides facilities for cleansing
and disinfestation. A great deal of work is also done in
the assessment of applications for housing on medical
grounds, a large number of which are from old folk who
require more suitable accommodation on the ground floor.
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