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face or have a visitor from year's end to year's end. Then, too, the
regular visitor may be able to detect any early deterioration in the
health of an elderly person, and can often arrange for medical advice
and treatment to be obtained in time to prevent some incipient disease
or deformity from becoming crippling. Unfortunately visitors are
scarce; it would seem as though people are afraid to associate themselves
with the problem of the aged and yet if life goes on everyone
will find themselves in the same state. Let all who read this report
accept the challenge of the problem of old age and be prepared to take
their share in solving it. If every man and woman in Southwark would
give an hour a week to visiting a lonely old person, much suffering
would be relieved in this Borough of ours.
Restaurant and Meals-on-Wheels Service
The restaurant at St. Alban's Hall is decorated in cheerful
colourings and furnished with small tables each accommodating four.
The old people begin to arrive soon after nine o' clock for morning
coffee and biscuits - some even bring their breakfast - and enjoy a
leisurely chat with friends in an atmosphere of warmth and cordiality
which is especially welcome to those who live alone, perhaps in one
room, and this helps them to feel that they still have a place in the
world. If they have a problem to discuss or a contribution to pay in
towards the holiday scheme, they take the opportunity of calling in at
the office. As dinner-time approaches the hall fills up. The meal is
served at 12.15 and a second sitting at 1 p.m. when all is cleared
there is a cup of tea for those who wish to linger - either to pass an
hour or two in the television room or simply just to talk and enjoy
companionship.
The Meals-on-Wheels service is growing each week, and the transPort
is carrying far more than the maximum number of meals for its
capacity, but our drivers and helpers never complain. Their one desire
is to take a meal to every old person who is in need, and they give
unstinted service, always on the watch to report any cases which seem
to require special attention, or a visit. One reason for the increase
in the number of meals delivered derives from the fact that many of
the old people who have hitherto been able to come to the restaurant
now find it impossible to leave their homes; some have been in hospital
and after discharge are unfit to walk to the Hall. Such cases are constantly
reported to us by doctors and almoners, and for all of them
meals-on-wheels are an absolute necessity.
Until this year the meals-on-wheels service functioned only four
days a week but after investigation it was found that there was a very
real need for dinners to be delivered on Mondays, and on Monday, 7th
December a five-day service was inaugurated over most of the Borough.