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WELFARE OF OLD PEOPLE
Meals Service
In March of the year under review, the authorities
of the U.G.S. Settlement, Staffordshire Street, expressed
to the Council their desire to be relieved of the responsibility
for the meals service operating from their premises.
The U.G.S. kitchen was providing meals for part of
Camberwell and the Dept ford Meals-on-Wheels Services.
Following discussion with representatives of the Dept ford
Borough Council, that authority subsequently notified this
Council that alternative arrangements had been made for
the Dept ford Meals Service.
Since this authority had no powers to operate a Mealson-Wheels
Service itself, it was considered that the best
solution would be for the Council to sponsor an ad hoc
body to administer the service as an interim measure. In
this connection, it was agreed that a van which it was
proposed to purchase for public health use could be suitably
adapted and used for the delivery of meals produced at the
U.G.S. kitchen.
Home Bathing
A report was submitted to the Public Health Committee
in June drawing attention to the steadily increasing need
for the provision of a home bathing service to alleviate
the difficulties of some of Camberwell's old people. The
old people who need such a service may be divided into
two categories:-
(a) the sick and frail
(b) the mobile, but housebound.
Those in the first category are usually under the
care of their family doctor and may also be receiving home
nursing. For them the indiscriminate provision of a home
bathing service without trained supervision by nursing
staff would be open to objection, but it was believed that
with the approval of their medical attendant, when nursingsupervision
of the actual bathing process could be arranged,
many could make use of the scheme with advantage.
The second category, which is by far the larger group,
comprises those old people who are unable by reason of age
and infirmity to attend at the cleansing station or public