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Another new project has been the "At Risk" register (p.34) started in the early
part of the year which promises to be of great value in finding handicaps in children
at an age when little if any faulty training has developed.
A modern Medical Officer of Health is ever increasingly aware of the work of
voluntary bodies. The once clear division of church and state in helping those unable
to help themselves has become an inextricably complicated tangle of associations,
officers, committees and visitors; some statutory, some voluntary, some full-time, some
part-time, trained and untrained with broad vision or sectional interest. And to
complicate the picture the numbers in need grow and grow as the age structure of the
population changes.
The problem of the aged is very pressing, especially in Leyton. According to the
1961 Census, of the borough's 16,524 old age pensioners, 3,299 live alone and 6,846 live
in two person households (in two-thirds of these both are pensioners). To make some
impact on this problem the Borough appointed in April a full-time Elderly Citizens
Liaison Officer. He has already done much to find outlets for the genuine eagerness to
help displayed by all sorts of organisations, channelling this energy to where it could
have most effect. In particular I should like to pay tribute to the enthusiasm of a
small but energetic band of young volunteers from schools and youth clubs.
August saw the opening of the luncheon club at Davies Lane which is the first of
several which the Committee have planned. It rapidly grew until it is now taking an
average of 37 a day. Food and fellowship do more to prevent a decline in physical and
mental health in old age than anything else, and this is preventive medicine of the
highest order. Decline because of age is inevitable, but because of it many people
accept illness in later years that they would not tolerate if they were younger. This
is misguided. We all expect to grow old; we need not all expect to grow ill as well.
A new attitude of mind is needed and luncheon clubs do much to spread it.
With so many points of growth in their work members can feel proud and look forward
with optimism, but would be wrong to be complacent, for there is still much to be done.
Improvement of the environment still has far to go, provision for the aged is hardly
past the beginning and there is no shortage of suggestions as to how the present services
could be further exploited to the benefit of the public.
I have pleasure in recording my thanks to the staff for their work, their loyalty
and their enthusiasm during the year, and to the helpfulness of those of other departments
where the function of the Health Department have needed their co-operation.
My thanks are also due to the Council and the two Health Committees for their
support and in particular to Alderman Mrs.A.M.M.Burrell, Chairman of the Public Health
Committee and Councillor F.W.Marshall, J.P., Chairman of the Leyton Health Area SubCommittee
whose constructive interest has been much valued.
I have the honour to be,
Mr.Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
Medical Officer of Health.
May, 1964
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