Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Havering]
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(iii) home care by Domestic Help Service
(iv) Meals - on - Wheels, provided in conjunction with the
Women's Voluntary Service and HOPWA
(v) Night attendants to help in the night care or ill or handicapped
persons.
(b) Accommodation
(i) Community Care
The aim is to permit a handicapped person to remain
within the community for as long as possible. When the
accommodation is unsuitable it can be adapted by, for
example, fitting a hand rail or constructing a ramp for a
wheelchair. Between April and December, 1965, seventeen
adaptations to premises were made. Arrangements
have been made with the Borough Architect that where
large-scale adaptations are requested on behalf of a handicapped
person, members of his staff would scrutinise the
plans and advise generally. I am most grateful to the
Borough Architect for this. Occasionally the accommodation
was totally unsuitable and the Housing Committee
agreed to provide five specially constructed homes each
year for such cases. These are being planned in consultation
with the Borough Architect, who arranges for that
member of his staff who is drawing up the plans to visit
the handicapped person to familiarise themselves with the
problem. I am most grateful to the Housing Manager and
his Committee for their help in this respect.
(ii) Residential Care
A proportion of handicapped persons require residential
care, permanent or temporary, and at 31st
December, 1965, eleven persons from Havering were
accommodated outside the Borough in homes run by
voluntary organisations, including the Shaftesbury Society,
Cheshire Homes, Salvation Army Homes.
(c) Occupation
(i) A handicapped person may need special help in finding
suitable employment. Up to the age of 18 years this can
be provided by the specialist youth employment officer
shared between Havering, Redbridge and Barking, but
after that age the Disablement Resettlement Officers of
the Hornchurch, Romford and Dagenham (for the Rainham
area) Labour Offices are responsible for arranging
employment, and training or rehabilitation courses. Over
2,000 persons in Havering are on the registers of these
officers. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts (1944
and 1959) oblige employers to fill at least three per cent,
of staff vacancies with persons on these registers. Certain
occupations (lift attendant, car park attendant) were
virtually confined to persons on these registers.
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