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12
Day Nursery.
A Day Nursery is established within the district at Diban Avenue,
Elm Park. It provides accommodation for 50 children up to five years
of age.
Domestic Help Service.
A domestic help service is in operation and is administered for
the Essex County Health Services by the Area Medical Officer, 34,
Cresthill Avenue, Grays.
Domestic Helps can be supplied for a period of two weeks in the
case of a home confinement, but as there is a great demand for this service,
it is essential to apply as early as possible. Where there is illness
approval may be given, upon receipt of a medical certificate, for a Help to
attend.
Domestic Helps are paid by the County Council, but the person
assisted is required to contribute towards the cost according to his, or
her, means. An assessment form must therefore be completed if it is
desired to claim reduction in the charge, otherwise the full standard
charge, which is at present 3s. 6d. an hour, will be payable.
Care of the Aged.
The usual number of cases have cropped up in which the dividing
line between statutory and other action is fluid.
Painstaking work by the Public Health Inspectors allied to a close
and essential liaison with the personal health services of the County
succeeded in avoiding any compulsory removal action under Section 47
of the National Assistance Act, 1944.
The Home Help Service also plays an important part in this type
of work although it must be said that their limits of assistance appear
to me as being not quite flexible enough to enable them to deal with
the kind of incident which crops up inevitably from time to time and
represents the social problem demanding most urgent solution.
There remains the occasional instance in which a combination of
mental and/or physical disability produces a lamentable state of affairs
for which no legal remedy appears appropriate. One wonders how much
an intial tendency to sloth, plus it may be, some degree of mental
instability (not of course necessarily certifiable) can in the ultimate be
so encouraged by the variety of services provided through Central and
Local Government as to produce a pathological climax. Inevitably the
effect of generosity is on occasion to be taken for granted and taken
advantage of and the socially difficult cases which come to notice over
the years do nothing to belie this assertion.
Home Safety.
A close liaison still exists between the local Committee and your
Public Health Department.