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HOURS WORKED AND NUMBERS OF HOME HELPS EMPLOYED 1949-1959.
Liaison arrangements
Apart from the opportunity given by the conferences referred to earlier for co-ordination
and co-operation within the service, the work is also closely co-ordinated with that of the
other personal health services to ensure that care given is adequate. For this purpose there
is close liaison and regular meetings between home help organisers and divisional medical,
administrative and nursing officers, and day-to-day contact is maintained with health
visitors, domiciliary midwives, home nurses and social case-workers, to whose duties the
home help service is often complementary. Special attention is given to ensure adequate
co-operation between the various services concerned with problem families and for this
purpose home help organisers attend meetings of divisional co-ordinating committees
when any families in which they have a particular interest are under discussion. These
families are also the subject of consultations between the home help organiser, the special
home help, the health visitor and the social case-worker as the need arises.
It is the function of the service to enable the household service to continue in difficult
circumstances to maintain the home as a viable entity and, where this cannot be done
without assistance, to create an ordered, organised household. A sound basis is thus provided
for any further care which may be needed. The home help service is in many cases a necessary
adjunct to social and nursing care as well as a service in its own right.
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