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30
OLD PEOPLE'S HOMES.
The following reports on the Homes run by Voluntary
Associations and Public Authorities have been received:-
"Southwood," Residential Club, Oldfield Road. Bickley.
This Club is run by the Women's Voluntary Services and the
Centre Organiser states:-
"We have twenty-eight single and six double bed-sitting
rooms at the Club. There were twenty-five women, eight men
and three married couples living in the Club on 31st December,
1950, the average age being seventy-seven and a half years.
Except for a few weeks we were full right up for the whole
year, with a long waiting list. We have stopped taking names
for the waiting list, because we feel it to be unfair on the applicants,
who, when their names are accepted, live in a state of
suspended hope indefinitely-vacancies so rarely occur.
Most of the residents have been with us since the early days
of the Club, and a number are becoming increasingly frail.
Two residents died during the year, one at the Club after a
heart illness, the other at a W.V.S. Nursing Home.
Four residents were admitted to W.V.S. Nursing Homes for
short periods of convalescence and returned to the Club very
much better. One resident entered hospital for observation, and
another for removal of cataract.
Two women and one man have been accepted for residence
during the year.
Two of our women residents, both over seventy, who had
been at Southwood, one for three and a half years and the other
fourteen months, felt so fit and able that they decided they
could undertake some work, and so took up posts as companion
helps.
A grand piano was presented to the Club during the year,
also a television set. The full size billiard table is a source of
great joy to the men. Entertainments are frequent-film shows,
musical evenings, whist drives and concert parties."
Merevale," Bickley Park Road.
This Home is run by the North West Kent Housing Society,
Ltd., and the Secretary reports, as follows:-
"A further increase of one was made in the available accommodation
at ' Merevale' early in 1950, and, but for short periods,
all beds were occupied throughout the year.
On 31st December, 1950, the residents consisted of twenty-six
females and nine males, of an average age of 81.8 years. This
included one married couple. There were five deaths, two of
which took place in the Home and three in hospitals.