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12
The Health Education Section has shown great enthusiasm and
diligence. The successful Home Safety exhibition was staged; a
colour film entitled "They Have A Future" on the activities of the
Junior Centre was produced and has been acclaimed by all who
have seen it. The section has also organised a full programme of
lectures, demonstrations and film shows. A good deal of the health
education material is designed and printed in the Department, and
new and interesting methods of presenting health education matter
have been devised.
The combined centres at Federation Hall and Riverdale will
be opening soon and will prove valuable assets. Two additional
lunch clubs for the elderly have been provided and the meals on
wheels have increased. Indeed, all the domiciliary supporting
services for the elderly show appreciable expansion. The total
number of elderly in the community continues to rise and the
Department is now being asked to help the over 75s in ever
greater numbers when, of course, the inevitable concomitants of
advancing years are most apparent. Despite the closest ties with
the hospital geriatric services, the Department is having to accept
ever greater numbers of infirm elderly into Part III accommodation.
The building of the new home at Gavestone Crescent with a special
care unit for the infirm was started this year and strenuous efforts
are being made by the Council to build more 60-bed homes to
accommodate in Greenwich all the old folk requiring attention. If
the programme is uninterrupted, there is a good prospect that all
our old people at Southern Grove Lodge will be accommodated
within the Borough by the end of 1970 or early in 1971. This
achievement will be dependent on a sympathetic attitude being
adopted by the Ministry and on the necessary loan sanction being
made available for the homes to be built to a strict time table.
The Greater London Council's new estate at Kidbrooke will
necessitate the provision of a maternity and child welfare centre
together with a dental suite; negotiations have been conducted and
agreement reached.
The imaginative development at Thamesmead presents an opportunity
to build new modern medical and social services. Already a
Joint Health Services Advisory Committee has been formed and,
although stages 1 and 2 of the development will be in Bexley, a
feasibility study is already under way to examine the feasibility of
providing comprehensive medical and social services for the people
of Thamesmead from a main medical and family centre. Some
preliminary investigations have already been undertaken by the
General Practice Research Unit at Guy's Hospital, and it is gratifying
to report the willingness with which the three branches of the
Health Service are co-operating in an attempt to provide a