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Holidays
There still remains much to be done to ensure that the more
physically handicapped people can get holidays.
Apart from the difficulty of raising sufficient money to pay for
accommodation there is the main difficulty of finding the accommodation
itself which will meet the special needs of the very handicapped.
Only when accommodation is freely available will we be able
to assure hard pressed relatives that we can relieve them of looking
after a handicapped member of the family whilst they have a
well earned holiday themselves.
Although the Association is only concerned with the arrangements
for a small number of holidays each year, the work involved
is complicated and protracted.
Hospital Treatment
Over the past five years many of the Almoners of the larger
London Hospitas have become accustomed to rely upon the
Association for dealing with social problems relating to physically
handicapped attending for hospital treatment.
The Association has helped wherever possible and relationships
with hospitals remain extremely cordial.
Housing
Both the London County Council and the Barking Borough
Council are very generous in arranging suitable transfers (particularly
where ground floor accommodation is necessary) for tenants
who are physically handicapped or who have a handicapped person
in their household. A number of extremely happy transfers took
place during the. year but unfortunately there still remain in private
property a number of cases who have to put up with very limited
facilities, some of which are now listed:—
(1) Absence of bath
(2) Absence of garden, hence no chair
(3) Lavatory inconveniently placed
(4) Lack of ramps, handrails, etc.
(5) Gas and electric meters inaccessible.
Occupational Centre
It is several years since the Association first pressed for the
setting up of such a centre in Barking for handicapped people and
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