View report page

32
Many people and many bodies provide different services for the aged.
The District Council is concerned as the Public Health Inspectors might be
called in by a relative or neighbour because of the insanitary state of the
house. The condition could be sufficiently serious for the Medical Officer
of Health to have to decide whether he ought to apply under Section 47
of National Assistance Act, for a Court Order for the compulsory removal
of the person to a home or hospital. He has too, whether as Medical
Officer of Health or as Area Medical Officer, a wide responsibility in the
case of any person who seems to be in need of help because of illness or
unfitness or poor habitation or any one of a host of troubles. The health
visitor comes into the picture in some cases because of her general concern
with people who need help. Home nurses devote much of their time to
the aged, as do also the home helps. The Welfare Officer, while having
no responsibility for the aged as such, is concerned with the person in
need of care and attention (not medical or nursing care and attention)
which he cannot provide himself or is not receiving from others. Such
people are admitted to the welfare homes. Many elderly people develop
abnormal mental states and the Mental Welfare Officer may need to help.
Then in this area, as in many others, the local hospital has established a
Geriatric Department with its own Geriatric Officer and Welfare Officer,
whose concern is the elderly. This service which the hospital provides is
something over and above that available to the elderly as ordinary members
of the public. The elderly too, of course, may make especially heavy
demands on the time of their own doctors.
Then there are the various forms of help provided by different organisations.
These are linked through the Old People's Welfare Committee.
In addition, are the services such as the home visiting provided by volunteers,
the whole service being administered by the Committee.
While the person of pensionable age is recognised, there is no definition
of the elderly. Of the so many people of pensionable age, only a
small proportion need to avail themselves of any of the various forms of
help which are provided. What determines whether any one falls into
this group is not age as such as much as some complicating factor or
factors. As long as people remain outside this group, they do not need
help. On the other hand, it is so very necessary to be able to discover
those who fall into the group of those needing help at the earliest stage,
and it would seem that this can be done only by having under supervision
of some sort the more elderly people even though at any particular time
they are not suffering from any such complication. But many of those
who need help of some sort are not needing medical help. It may be that
they are suffering merely because they are lonely, and if they are not
housebound the solution could be that they join one of the excellent clubs
which are run by many churches, the British Red Cross Society, and the
Womens Voluntary Service. There are many other ways in which these
people can be adequately helped which do not entail the services of a
doctor or nurse. On the other hand, to deal with some of the more
difficult problems the medical and nursing services are necessary, and it