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8
Care of the Aged.
In my annual report for last year I referred to the work which is being done in the
borough by the St. Pancras Association for the Care of the Aged, setting out its constitution
and the fact that it represented close co-operation between voluntary and municipal effort.
So intimately is the work associated with the health of the borough that I feel sure a report
on the activities of S.P.A.C.A. will be welcomed in this report, both by councillors and members
of the various voluntary associations concerned.
The work of the association commenced in April, 1950, and 1951 represented its first
full year's work. In fact even during 1951 the plan of the scheme was receiving consideration
and the Committee was seeking to find out and anxious to learn which of its activities were
most needed and which would be most welcomed.
As your Medical Officer of Health I am mainly interested in the prevention of the
disabilities of old age rather than in curative measures or rehabilitation to mitigate bad
circumstances which have been allowed to arise.
The Committee agreed in the first place that an ideal scheme would be one whereby
retired persons might be kept under observation and advice tendered to them before their
condition became such that cure and rehabilitation was required. Accordingly at the
Association's request the Council appointed a Health Officer who was a trained nurse, and
to her was allocated a district in which there were known to be living approximately 300-400
persons of retirement age. All of these persons were visited and in fact have been visited
more or less regularly throughout the year. Many of them were hale and hearty, working,
independent, and in no need of assistance. Others required a certain amount of help and
further interests in life through the Darby and Joan Clubs and various activities to which I
will refer later. The needs of these people were met. Other cases were in need of actual
assistance. Some were no longer able to live at home. These were few in number and
arrangements had to be made to provide for them either in hospital or institution. Quite a large
number, however, needed considerable assistance in order to enable them to live at home in
happiness and comfort.
Experience showed that one Health Officer could advise and help more than 300-400
persons of retirement age in view of the fact that only a small proportion required active help
and frequent visiting. Accordingly towards the end of the year Miss Mackie, your Health
Officer, was given another area. To-day she is visiting regularly and keeping in touch with
some 700 old people. This work is true preventive work and I am satisfied that this appointment
has more than justified itself, not only in the happiness and comfort it brings to old people,
but probably economically as well, for it is possible that a large number of old persons are
being cared for in their own homes who otherwise might be in State institutions at a very
large cost to the Country.
Miss Mackie paid no less than 1,461 visits during that part of the year during which she
gave her full time to the work.