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The first year of operation of the Borough scheme for the
prevention and management of homelessness ran particularly
smoothly due to the full co-operation of the staff of the Housing
and Children's Departments and all others concerned with this
problem.
SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY
Residential Care
The need to extend the Authorities residential accommodation
provision is emphasised by the fact that although 111 people
were admitted to Homes during the year, the waiting list for
beds stands at 154, an increase of 7 over 1967. Primarily crisis
situations are being dealt with which to some extent explains
the increasing frailty of the old folk to be seen in our homes; the
ageing process accounts for the remainder. Old folk need to
prepare for their admission — to adjust to the idea of parting
with home and friends and all that is familiar and we are having
to recognise that unavoidable delays in their admission can
result in the often traumatic experience of it being effected in
crisis circumstances.
Resident participation continues to develop at the Homes
as will have been noted by many of those people attending the
various coffee mornings, bazaars, open days etc. where residents
were very much to the fore both in the provision and sale of the
articles and in the planning of such activities. The facility
whereby residents at one of our Homes have a kitchen to make
their own hot drinks or snacks is proving to be invaluable and is
an innovation that can be usefully incorporated in the design
of future homes.
Staffing
A static personnel is a pre-requisite of a happy home, for
residents become insecure where they must continually make
new realtionships or accustom themselves to new patterns of
working. Fortunately the turn-over of staff in the smaller homes
has not been great, but a crisis involving attendant staff vacancies
developed at the Willows resulting in the need to close
one of the blocks so that the most economic deployment of
available staff could be achieved. Admissions of residents
had to be curtailed accordingly and although this action reduced
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