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Home assessment visits to advise on the social care of the elderly and
visits to patients discharged from hospital continued to form a major part of
the work of the Geriatric Liaison Officer. At the request of the geriatrician
assessment visits were made to the homes of old people prior to admission to
hospital, and in many cases patients were admitted without a further visit by
him. A welcomed development during the year was home visiting by the occupational
therapist when it was felt that the patient required further help
following discharge from hospital.

ACCIDENTAL HYPOTHERMIA
In December 1965, following research reports indicating that elderly people
may suffer from hypothermia without this being realised, health visitors and
district nurses were issued with low reading thermometers in an endeavour to
detect the condition in its early stages. The winder of 1965/6 was comparatively
mild, however, and two cases only came to notice, in each of which the
low temperature was transitory, and was attributed to age and inactivity.
Preparations were made for a more detailed study of the problem during the
following winter in conjunction with the London Borough of Redbridge, each
authority to carry out a pilot survey during January, February and March, 1967,
of 20 old people each month.
In Barking, a pool of equipment, available night and day, was set up in
the Nurses' Training Home, consisting of blankets, safety oil stoves, one gallon
oil cans, hot water bottles and sleeping bags-which could be used also as
quilts - so that any serious case discovered could be rapidly assisted even if
gas and/or electricity or solid fuel were not available.
The cases were selected on a different basis in each Borough because
available sources of information differed. The cases in Barking were chosen at
random from elderly persons in receipt of home nursing services, and in Redbridge
they were selected from a source provided by the Local Executive Council.
The survey was carried out by home nurses who were equipped with
Max/Minimum Thermometers and who visited each patient daily to record body
temperature with a low reading thermometer, minimum temperature of the bedroom
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