View report page

The fact is that there exists, bound up within the liberty of the subject, the right, within very broad limits, to
live dangerously; and if we interfere with too much zeal to protect an individual from a specific peril we may
be putting at hazard the freedom of every citizen. Thus most of the time we feel obliged to take the calculated
risk of leaving the old person where she is, hoping that eventually she can be persuaded to see reason.
On the other hand there is the point of view that says that if any individual wishes to live, suffer and die in such
surroundings, nobody has the right to interfere, even to save life. This attitude of course presupposes that such a
person has clearly and dispassionately thought out her situation. This is rarely the case. They are usually
confused and irrational. If they were not, they would probably have agreed to have help long before. Therefore
we can never assume that because a person rejects all approaches and abuses those who make them, that she
necessarily means what she says. She may well be appealing for help in the only way that she feels preserves her
independence and self-respect. It is not unusual to find that the old lady who has resisted every offer tooth and
nail, even to the point when she is lying helpless and defiant, will, when all the legal procedures have been
completed and the doctor appears with the magistrate's order, accept the ministrations of the ambulance men
who have come to fetch her gracefully and thankfully and allow herself to be carried down to the ambulance
without protest. For, taken all in all, is this not for her the final proof that there are people who really care about
her?
Chiropody
Demands on this service continue to increase and, as before, treatments are spaced to a minimum of 8 weeks
apart except in special cases.
Applicants for domiciliary chiropody have all been visited before being accepted and most have been found to be
in genuine need for treatment at home.