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175
in old age depend to a large extent upon the qualities inherited at
birth and this is where the geriatric problem really begins.
In future, by modifying inherited disabilities, by reducing widespread
malnutrition, by eliminating infectious and other diseases,
by promoting health education both socially and industrially we
will achieve a fitter nation and our people will arrive more physically
and mentally attuned to a contented retirement. Unfortunately, the
attainment of these very objectives will merely serve to augment
and intensify the very problems we seek to solve and, moreover,
a better educated and informed pensioner will demand even higher
standards of amenity.
To meet the new situation it is clear that the character of the
hospital and local authority home will need to change and this
is already presaged by the Government's recent green paper. Expansion
of Combined and other Day Centres and the establishment
of loosely-knit units or communities where all services can be
provided uncomplicated by transport difficulties are obvious lines
of improvement. A gradual refining of other supporting services
such as home helps, meals-on-wheels, incontinent laundry and
bathing facilities, etc., will occur but then, as now, there will be
extreme difficulty in recruiting and training people for such practical
duties. Indeed, with the extension of full-time education it is
conceivable that the need for this type of person will eventually
outweigh that for the professional whose own numbers are already
below those necessary for maintaining adequate control of the
situation.
Developed on empirical and preventive lines over a number of
years by a farseeing Council, the geriatric services at Greenwich
are soundly based on foundations permitting of rapid expansion.
However, our previous successes are no guarantee of future success
which, in the shadow of coming events, will require all the singleness
of purpose and vision of earlier years.
In the final analysis, all future prospects will depend upon
those resources, both of money and personnel, which we are
prepared to allocate to this very serious and increasingly complicated
problem. Temporizing cannot prevent or evade the issues
engendered by a rapidly expanding elderly population and the
greater delay, the more chaotic will be the situation and the more
socially costly and personally tragic it will become.
Visiting
Visits made during 1969 amounted to 19,255, a decrease of
some 6% compared with those for the previous year.