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from the home help service, day nurseries, etc., or by arranging for nursing attention
or a recuperative holiday for an ailing parent. The need for reception into care can often
be similarly averted in times of crisis in households where child neglect does not
ordinarily occur. In the last nine months of 1955 it is estimated that reception into care
of 135 children was avoided by prompt action of this sort.
Care of the
aged
The needs of old people have made a continuing and growing demand on the
service throughout the year. Perhaps the heaviest burden has fallen on the home helps,
who attended the homes of 2,162 chronic sick, aged and infirm people during 1955
(312, or 17 per cent., more than in 1954). Households in all categories attended numbered
2,915 (2,599 in 1954) and 231 home helps (equivalent to just over 164 whole-time staff)
were employed at the end of the year. Many old people were visited by district nurses
and we were able to help them and other sick persons by lending home nursing equipment
in 51 cases. Full use has been made by home-bound old people of the domiciliary
chiropody service provided out of voluntary funds by the North London District
Nursing Association (for which health visitors can nominate suitable cases) and attendances
at the Council's own foot clinic, over 80 per cent. of which are estimated to be
by old people, again rose from 25,264 in 1954 to 25,551 in 1955. No applications were
received from any organisations wishing to provide a chiropody service for old people
in the Council's premises. We provided recuperative holidays for 84 people over
70 years of age out of a total of 457 adults, and the total number of holidays provided
for all classes of persons was 1,017 (956 in 1954). At the request of the organisation,
we helped Invalid Meals for London to review the needs of their clients in the division
and gave advice on certain aspects of procedure, so as to ensure that meals were provided
to as many needy persons as possible (principally the aged and chronic sick) but that
at the same time service was not continued indefinitely without review. Other services
for old people operating in the division include the laundry services provided by the
borough councils.
Care of
mothers and
young
children
Throughout 1955 fifteen welfare centres and branch centres were open, but the
centre in John Street, Holborn, was closed on 28th May and replaced by the Province
of Natal centre, to which special reference is made in a succeeding paragraph. The
special feature of 1955 has been the development of toddlers' clinics. It is a matter of
experience that the toddler, especially the only child, tends not to be taken to the
welfare centre, and defects are not infrequently found on school entry which could
and should have been treated and corrected years before. The toddlers' clinic is an
attempt to overcome this difficulty. The children are seen by appointment as near their
birthday as possible, and it is found that about one-half of the children invited do, in
fact, attend. They are all seen by the clinic doctor. Sessions are now held in all main
centres and at the end of the year six sessions were being conducted weekly and one
fortnightly, as against two each week only at the end of 1954. First attendances of children
under one year at infant welfare sessions numbered 4,236 representing 84 per cent. of the
live births for the year (1954 figure 90 per cent.). Other activities at welfare centres
continued but, except those dealt with in special paragraphs below, presented no features
worthy of special comment. Special arrangements were instituted for expectant and
nursing mothers and children under five, and it is hoped that in consequence all those
needing treatment will be persuaded to have it.
Voluntary
workers in
welfare
centres
We have always encouraged voluntary workers in the welfare centres, where they
are particularly helpful in relieving the busy nursing staff of their non-nursing duties.
During 1955 we have made special efforts to encourage more voluntary help, with
special emphasis on relieving the clinic nurse at prophylaxis sessions. One British Red
Cross auxiliary is now undertaking regular work of this nature, and other voluntary
workers sell welfare foods (2 centres), weigh babies (3 centres), staff occasional creche
sessions (1 centre—see below as to occasional creches generally), or undertake clerical
and receptionist duties at immunisation sessions (1 centre).
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