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17. HOME HELP SERVICE
The Home Help Service is provided by the Council under Section 29 of the National
Health Service Act. Four types of service are provided:-
(1) The Standard Service
This provides help in acute illness, at home confinements, for tuberculosis
cases, and for the chronic sick and aged. The major part of the case load is
composed of the chronic sick.
(2) Family Help Service
This is to support the family when the mother is either temporarily absent from
home, or due to inadequacy or some other reason is unable to cope with her familj
duties. The family help service may be residential or non-residential.
(3) The Good Neighbour Service
This is an arrangement by which regular help is given by a neighbour working
under the Home Help scheme.
(4) The Night Service
This operates from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. to give relief to the family of seriously
ill patients.
The case load of the service during the year was as follows:-
Types of patients assisted No.
Chronic sick, aged and tuberculosis 2,713
Maternity 108
Others 189
Family help 11
The establishment of home helps is 260 which is partly filled by 338 partrtime and
14 full-time staff to give an equivalent of 219 full-time home helps.
The basic rate payable to Home Helps was increased during the year to 39p per hour.
This increase did not improve recruitment.
A mobile squad is used to deal with long neglected homes which are sometimes only
brought to our notice when a patient has to be admitted to hospital.
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