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59
Questions of retirement age, size of pensions, etc., fall outside
the scope of local administration but the health and well-being of
the aged is a matter of great concern to a Medical Officer of Health
and his department.
Voluntary organisations perform much good work unobtrusively
and unsolicited but among these bodies there is often overlapping.
Individually they suffer from lack of funds and collectively from a
lack of cohesion.
In my Report last year I pointed out the multiplicity of agencies
concerned directly and indirectly with the welfare of the aged and
infirm and that some co-ordination of them was not only desirable
but essential if maximum benefits were to be made available to all
the elderly. I am more than ever convinced that the general
improvement in the health and welfare of the elderly is to be gained
not by the casual, haphazard and sporadic approach, but only by a
joint or team effort with some form of central co-ordination and
direction.
That this can be acliieved solely by voluntary organisation is
rather problematical and here it is inevitable that one is drawn to
an analogy between Old Age Welfare and Child Welfare ; the latter
service as we know it to-day was founded on the pioneer work of
voluntary bodies, but eventually national recognition was effected
and Local Government control instituted.
It appears to me that, provided no reduction in the moral
obligation of people to care for their own parents results, then
similar action in respect of the welfare of the aged and infirm is not
only justifiable but is probably the only method likely to produce a
satisfactory solution to the growing problem. At the moment,
however, by virtue of the present legal position the Council is
precluded from taking any direct part in this work and is limited
to giving financial aid to Old People's voluntary organisations.
During the year grants were made by the Council to voluntary
organisations as under :—
£250 British Red Cross Society for the ' Meals on Wheels'
scheme.
£40 Women's Voluntary Services in respect of the four
' Darby and Joan ' Clubs.
£10 Old Age Pensioners'Association, Parish Hall, Swallowfield
Road, S.E.7.
£10 St. John's Old Folks' Club at Furzefield Road, S.E.3.
In addition, a sum of £674 18s. lid. was made available by the
Council to the Greenwich Old People's Welfare Committee for the
specific purpose of providing holidays for old people.