View report page

An interesting discussion developed over the question of cleaning the front door
step - not one of the normal jobs of a Home Help. Many experienced Helps felt that it
could for some people be more important than giving them food, as it has a powerful
status value, showing the neighbours that you qualify for help and showing them your
door step is cleaner than theirs. Man does not live by bread alone.
After a cup of tea two members of a local dramatic society acted a comedy sketch
of a dialogue between an old lady and a Home Help, in which discussion points were
highlighted as follows:-
(a) The old lady wants things done in a particular way.
(b) She is suspicious of theft.
(c) she keeps too much furniture to make cleaning easy.
(d) She is unwilling to accept the help of neighbours.
(e) She will not eat what she is not used to and has to be persuaded.
(f) Loneliness makes her talk so much it is difficult for the Help
to get away.
(g) Some old people are scroungers and feel they ought to get more
than they do.
(h) The Home Help gets priorities wrong (i.e. cleaning is more
important than food).
(i) The Home Help gets impatient with the old lady.
This sketch promoted much discussion and effectively "broke the ice" for the rest
of the course.
The last 10 minutes of the first session were spent by the groups making arrangements
among themselves for the provision of the display which was to be the discussion
point for the second session.
Each group was asked to arrive at the next session with a two-course meal, costing
less than ls.6d., set out for a particular patient. The patients named were partially
sited, had no teeth, had stroke of right arm, were convalescent, had Parkinsonism,
facial paralysis, and the like.
The second session began with group discussion of the question "How do you cook a
meal for ls.6d.?" followed by a plenary discussion with a doctor on the LA staff, who
then went on to comment on each of the displays which had been brought. The ingenuity
and variety was really most impressive but there was room for a good deal of comment
on how they might have been improved nevertheless.
After the cup of tea, plenary discussion and a general talk by the doctor on
nutrition concluded the programme.
The opening question for the third session was "What do you think is the greatest
danger to your own health as the result of being a Home Help?" Questions arising were
put on paper and then dealt with by a two-man "Brains Trust" of a general practitioner
with the Medical Officer of Health. The questions were in fact mainly directed at the
Medical Officer of Health - what are the risks of infection from bedpans, from various
skin diseases, shingles, TB, from dust - a large number had a real fear of cancer being
infectious. Other questions dealt with the connection between fibrositis and lifting
and whether mental illness was catching in any way. Others were: "What do you do if you
find a patient unconscious, or if he gives you important medical information and asks
you not to tell his doctor?" "What is the value of rubber gloves?" This was a most
lively period and of very great value in correcting some very varied notions and fears.
(51)