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Welfare of Handicapped Persons
The County Council's Welfare Department provides welfare
services for the deaf and dumb and hard of hearing and other persons
who are handicapped by disease, injury, or congenital deformity.
There is a specially appointed Social Welfare Officer dealing with the
substantially handicapped living in Hornsey. Services to the deaf and
dumb and the hard of hearing are provided by appropriate voluntary
organisations, to which the County Council makes financial grants.
The County Council supplies aids and appliances not otherwise provided
by the National Health Service and carries out where necessary adaptations
to houses to enable a handicapped person to become more
mobile, provides holidays, arranges for the disabled to take part in
social activities, attend handcraft classes, etc. Advice and guidance
regarding personal problems are given by voluntary organisations
catering for particular classes of handicapped persons. The Area
Welfare Officer endeavours to procure from industry appropriate
assembly work and arranges for this to be carried out by handicapped
persons at a work centre or in their own homes, where suitable.
In 1962 there were 350 cases on Hornsey's register of handicapped
persons.
Services for the aged
The aged figure greatly in all welfare services and about a third
of the cases looked after by the welfare department are aged people.
Hornsey is fortunate in having many voluntary or semi-voluntary organisations
working on various aspects of welfare for aged persons, but
there is no doubt that people connected with all of these associations
would be the first to admit that in spite of all their efforts, they are
unable to meet the real needs in the Borough. The work of the
Hornsey Old People's Welfare Council is well known and has been
reported on many occasions. Something like 8,000 home visits per
year, 3,000 - 4,000 interviews at the office and a wide variety of
other activities for the aged, including arrangements for sending them
on holidays, outings for a day at the sea-side, Christmas parcels, as
well as an arrangement for finding jobs for retired persons, are just
a few of the activities carried out by the Old People's Welfare Council.
The Women's Voluntary Service continued despite all difficulties to
supply "meals on wheels" throughout the Borough, and the Old People's
Welfare Council has set up a meals centre at the Haringey Boys' Club
at which a cooked meal is provided three times a week for l/6d.
The number of meals provided is approximately 60 each day.
The Hornsey Housing Trust has for many years met a great
need by the provision of small flatlets for aged persons. 300 flatlets
are provided within the Borough at extremely reasonable rents, which
enable the tenants to stay in their own homes for as long as possible.
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