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Aged not sick 4
Tuberculosis 3
Amputations 4
Phlebitis 3
Anaemia 2
Thrombosis 3
Diabetes 3
Glaucoma 3
Effects of accident 2
Carcinoma 3
Others from which only one patient suffered:—
Dislocated shoulder, osteo-arthritis, internal cysts, fibrositis, shingles, bladder,
neurosis, duodenal ulcer, thyroid, sciatica, colostomy diverticulitis, disseminated sclerosis,
neuritis, spondylitis, war disabled.
Others suffering from more than one complaint:—
Arthritis and bronchitis, arthritis and hernia, bronchitis and crippled, diabetic and
neurotic, diabetic and varicose veins and husband is blind, bronchitis and leg amputated,
arthritis and kidney operation.
The Future
What about the future of this service ? In the past it has tended to be looked upon
as a gap filler to be called in where other services have either failed or felt that they have
nothing further to give. I look forward to the time when it will be no longer considered
a filler in of gaps but a service with a discipline of its own working under the umbrella
of the Health Department in exerting its influence and making for progress from its own
knowledge and with its own initiative.
And what about the Organiser? Perhaps in this context discretion is the better
part of valour and all I will say about this is that the organiser of the future will be a
well-trained competent person with her own ' know-how' and techniques leading a
section of the health department in much the same way as the Chief Public Health
Inspector, in which progress can be made in a strictly medical sense as well as in the
social field.
And what about the home help herself? I hope that she will be a sensible person
with a large measure of the milk of human kindness, competent to take responsibility;
not really very different from the home help of today, (a nice experienced housewife as
she has been called). And what about the training of the future home help? There
appeared an article in the Medical Officer of 17th August of this year entitled " The
Shining Hour " by Anne Armstrong which gave the consumer reaction to the home
help service. Mrs. Armstrong disabled by poliomyelitis has had some ten thousand
home help hours. She says many complimentary things about the home help service
but she suggests that there should be four grades of home help, one, two, three and four
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