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20
SOCIAL WELFARE SERVICES.
The various services provided for the welfare of old people continued
to function throughout the year and the four full time old people's clubs again
proved very popular places where the pensioners can meet their friends to sit
and talk in comfort, play games, listen to wireless or television, and find
from 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. that companionship which so many of them lack in
their homes. The Council's small coach is still used to transport some of the
crippled and inactive pensioners to and from the clubs daily and at the end
of the year 22 old people were taking this opportunity to enjoy the club
amenities which they could not otherwise have done. The special club concert
given at Hoxton Hall every Friday afternoon still attracts a full attendance.
Early in the year the Council purchased a hotel on the seafront at St.
Leonards-on-Sea for use as a Holiday Hotel for Shoreditch pensioners and some
of the poorer families. Some structural alterations including the installation
of a lift were needed, but in order to have the hotel available for the old
people without delay, it was decided to use the lower floors only and to close
down at the end of September for the building work to be carried out during
the winter months. During the four summer months it was open, 389 residents
enjoyed a week's stay.
Since the Council's staff canteen undertook the supply of meals for
the "Meals on Wheels" service, the demand has continued to grow, and at the
end of the year around 150 meals were being supplied each day,- 75 at the
Clubs, and 75 delivered to homebound folk by the Salvation Army and part-time
Council staff who had to be engaged when the F.V.S, were no longer able to help,
Our three lady visitors maintained their good work of visiting the old
people and arranging for any of the countless services available to be
provided where needed. Over 5,000 visits were made,
A reasonably comprehensive list of amenities provided directly by the
Borough Council, (through my department) for old people in the Borough,
includes free baths, free chiropody (though 4/- at home), clubs (full and parttime)
with almost every amenity, home visiting (twice annually to every
pensioner by one visitor, and for emergencies, etc. by one of the three visitors)
assisted holidays, free laundry facilities for the incontinent, 1Od mid-day
two-course meals both at clubs and for the homebound (32,000 in all), provision
of bedding, clothing, furniture, etc. where needed, Christmas parcels (670),
Christmas dinner for 400, Church Service at St. Paul's Cathedral, clothes
mending at one club, redecorating of premises, entertainments, talent competition,
exhibition of handicrafts (and annual sale of work), assistance with
fuel, Harvest festival gifts distribution, home nursing requisites (including
20 wheel chairs), library books delivered to housebound, assistance with
ophthalmic and dental services where needed, lowering of gas and electric
meters where needed, a regular shoe repair service (free, by Lion Boys' Club),
S.O.S. cards for pensioners living alone, summer outings for both active and
housebound groups, various goods at reduced prices or free, wireless for the
bedridden, legal aid assistance - and. in fact other help such as collection of
pensions for housebound and almost every possible assistance in any form of
difficulty. Birthday cards and Christmas cards are sent to all club members,