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26
continue at work long after the usual age for retirement and it has been
found that old people who are in good health usually prefer to continue
in employment. As a general rule old people who continue to work are
more active in mind and body than those who do not, but it is not always
easy to decide whether they are in good health because they work, or
whether they work because they are in good health. There can,
however, be no doubt that old people who have not worked for some time
and who come to the Old People's Workshop, which is run by the
Hampstead Old People's Welfare Association, where they can do work
suited to their capacity in congenial surroundings, do improve in health
both mentally and physically. It is equally true that a certain number
of old people who have looked after themselves reasonably adequately,
when admitted to an old people's home where they have no responsibilities
, die in a very short time.
The aim of the local authority services should, therefore, be
to give support to the old people so that they can live comfortably and
happily in their own homes but that the services provided should not
be so complete as to remove their interest in, or their responsibility
for, their own well-being.
It is on this basis that the local authority services have been
developed. The home help service in particular is designed to help
in the running of the home with a certain amount of cleaning, shopping
and cooking, dealing especially with the heavier tasks.
The other services including nursing, meals-on-wheels, the
visiting service provided by the Old People's Welfare Association
and the incontinent laundry service are also intended to be supportive
services and all of them either singly or combined are not intended
to provide complete care but to make it reasonably possible, in the
particular circumstances, for the old people to continue to live in
their own homes and to look after themselves.
I greatly appreciate the services provided by the London
County Council, the National Assistance Board and the various
voluntary organisations which have eased the task of the Borough
Council enormously. I must also mention the great kindness and
help which is shown by neighbours and which is often of much greater
value than is generally appreciated. Old people often have difficulty
in maintaining their standards as their strength and agility diminish