View report page

PERSONAL HEALTH
for 40 children from both Enfield and the London Borough of Haringey
Arrangements were also agreed with the London Borough of Haringey for
mentally handicapped adults resident in Enfield to attend for one week at a
holiday camp on the South Coast, the arrangements to be made by the
London Borough of Haringey. (See Tables 24 and 25).
Alcoholism
The extent of alcoholism in the borough is not known and hostel provision
specifically for this purpose was not included in the Council's Ten-Year Plan
but the Council has, in the past, on medical recommendation, accepted
responsibility at a voluntary home for patients so placed for rehabilitation
following hospital treatment for alcoholism.
Section 29,
National Health Service
Act 1946
Home Help Service
Under the National Health Service Act 1946 a local health authority was
empowered to make arrangements for providing domestic help for households
where such help is required owing to the presence of any person who is ill,
lying in, an expectant mother, aged, or a child not over compulsory school
age within the meaning of the Education Act 1944. In Enfield the Borough
Council continued to provide such a service through the Health Department
until 31st March, 1971.
In March, 1971, the Secretary of State exercised his powers under Section
13 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 to impose as from 1st
April, 1971, on local health authorities the duty to provide or arrange to
provide a home help service adequate to the needs of their area and to enable
local health authorities to provide or arrange for the provision of laundry
facilities for households for which home help service is being or can be
provided. However, the Local Authorities Social Services Act 1970 assigned
these functions to the Social Services Committee and Director of Social
Services from 1st April, 1971.
Although there was marked improvement in the number of home helps
recruited during the first three months of the year, the amount of help
available continued to be below that required to meet the increased demand.
By 31st March, 1971, nearly 156 whole-time equivalent home helps were
employed - compared with the figure of 150 for the end of the previous year
but it was still necessary to continue to limit the hours of help provided in
individual cases in order to assist as many applicants as possible. The
continued provision of transport for home helps between districts of the
borough has encouraged recruitment and made a better service possible in
areas where the greatest difficulty is normally experienced.
During the three-month period, 2,102 cases were provided with help. Of
these 1,769 were persons aged 65 years and over, eight were maternity cases,
235 were chronic sick or tuberculous, and two were mentally disordered.
The remaining 88 cases were assisted for various reasons, such as postoperative
hospital discharge, ante-natal conditions, and acute illness. No
cases required assistance under the special scheme for the provision of
domestic help for mothers suffering from toxaemia of pregnancy.
Neighbourly
Help Scheme
Under this scheme neighbours may be paid a small weekly sum to provide
limited domestic help to those in need. The neighbourly help keeps a friendly
eye on the patient and undertakes or helps with certain household duties,
such as fire-lighting, preparing meals, shopping and cleaning. The scheme
operates on a relatively small scale as many prefer to be truly neighbourly and
46