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BOROUGH OF WILLESDEN
Hfalth Department,
54 Winchester Avenue,
Kilburn, London, N.W.6.
July, 1962.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Willesden.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I beg to submit the annual report of the health and circumstances of the borough for the year 1961.
Public health measures were extended to protect people against the common disorders of our modern
age: the ills and discomforts of old age, the mental disturbances, the respiratory diseases, and mental and
physical crippling by accidents. There is no doubt that the disturbances of old age and the mental disorders
form our major future public health problems. Only a strengthening and extension of the community services
can help to deal with them adequately. All the hospital beds in the world and all the specialists who look
after them cannot cope with these problems unaided. It is certain that the new type of hospitals that are being
planned cannot deal with most old people who suffer from many illnesses, some of them minor, but disabling.
Old people need a range of treatment from effective home care and day treatment to full hospital facilities.
It is becoming more and more necessary to integrate the community, domiciliary and hospital services if only
to obtain more effective treatment of the aged.
The Council and the Willesden Old People's Welfare Committee have adopted a true pioneering
spirit in their help for the aged. They are making every effort to help the aged feel that they are still wanted
in the community and they are providing them with services to keep them up and about. Two senior clubs
were opened during the year, the Willesden Green in August and Kensal Rise in September. Here they can
find companionship and enjoy the amenities, which include billiards, television, hobbies, cheap good meals,
whist drives and concerts. A survey in the borough revealed that the elderly had little or no hobbies, and few
had prepared themselves for retirement by cultivating outside interests other than work; both men and
women listened to the radio and read a newspaper; women, in addition, enjoyed their leisure by knitting or
sewing. The senior clubs are very successful: within an hour of the Kensal Rise club opening, 110 members
signed on, and the maximum of 250 were enrolled by the end of the afternoon.
The old people's clinic, opened in September, 1961 concentrated mainly on providing social and
welfare services. It fills a need in helping the elderly to live happy and independent lives. The friendly,
leisurely atmosphere of the clinic makes them very willing to accept help on health and welfare problems.
In the future people may well be prepared for retirement at an even earlier age, say 50, to help them face
ageing with more confidence. Malnutrition was found to be a common disorder among the aged, because of
their low incomes and their inability to do their shopping and prepare their meals. The Willesden survey
showed that their diet was monotonous and stodgy, with starch making up its bulk. Their breakfast was
rarely cooked, their dinner comprised one main dish—meat and vegetable, and their tea was invariably bread,
butter and tea. Some of them took a high tea as the main meal, with only a meagre snack eaten at mid-day.
They rarely bought fruit. A welcome relief for many of them is the opening of luncheon clubs (three more
during the year, making a total of six) where they can enjoy a cheap, hot, well-cooked meal and the opportunity
of meeting friends. Old people have welcomed the chance the Committee gave them of a good cheap
holiday by the seaside. In particular the Council is helping the aged by building many flats and bungalows
for them.
With the battle against tuberculosis succeeding on all fronts, more attention has been paid to cancer
of the lung and bronchitis. Over the last fifteen years, bronchitis and cancer have displaced tuberculosis as
an important cause of invalidity and death. The death rate from cancer of the lung in Willesden has more
than doubled in the last fifteen years; in 1961 it was eight times that from tuberculosis and ten times that
from bronchitis. For every woman eight men die from lung cancer, the majority over 45 years of age when
they had already smoked enough cigarettes to produce the cancer.