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has been a slight decrease in maternity; a decrease from 3.5 to 1% in tuberculosis; and
a decrease from 21.5 to 12% for others. The total number of cases in 1953 was 198.789.
and the total number of cases in 1961 was 328.275. An attempt is made to analyse the
cost of the service and to compare different authorities. The classification of the service
given includes problem families, mentally confused or disturbed, resident or family helps,
disinfestation, laundry, neighbourly help or group schemes, and then the short periods,
early morning, during the day and evening and then weekends. The number of authorities
taken as a sample was 79. 37 of these provided a service for problem families, 17
provided laundry service, 15 a resident family help, 14 provided evening service, 10
weekend, 8 neighbourly group schemes, or neighbourly help or group schemes. Tribute
is paid to the home helps' husbands who have taken a great interest in the work of their
wives and go along and do little repair jobs for the elderly people. On one occasion the
home help organiser was visited by the husband of one of the helps who said that his
wife was ill and he had come to help, he had already visited the patient and lit the fire and
prepared the breakfast.
The trends of the development of the domiciliary services as a whole in Great
Britain and their suggested expansion is shown in the famous 10-year plan which the
Minister of Health has had prepared for the hospitals. He is now asking the local
authorities to prepare their plans to dovetail in with those of the hospitals. The increasing
emphasis is on home care and the home help service will develop its own discipline
as distinct from a discipline shared by other branches of the service.
I look forward to a service where adequate research is carried out into the content
of the home help's duties where her duties, as well as her case load, are more clearly
defined than at present. Not in order to limit her activities but to recognise the enormous
amount of medical work she really does, but to which no-one ever officially seems to admit.
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