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102
Prevention of Accidents in the Home.
Between the 5th and 10th November a Home Safety Week
was held in Greater London.
In Walthamstow an article on home accidents was prepared
for publication in the local Press, talks were given by health visitors
at old people's clubs and leaflets were distributed.
Because of the general demand for visual aids during Home
Safety Week, it was impossible to obtain suitable films, but these
were obtained later and shown to six old people's clubs during
December.
DOMESTIC HELP SERVICE
(Section 29)
Owing to the sickness of the Area Domestic Help Organiser
from the end of May until mid'October, arrangements were made
through the courtesy of the County Medical Officer of Health for
the County Domestic Help Organiser, Miss G. Jenkins, to take
over supervision of the Domestic Help Service in Walthamstow for
about 10 weeks. This proved very helpful in ensuring the smooth
running of the Service, due particularly to the fact that Miss
Jenkins was able to use her car for the purpose of visiting patients
and helps, and gave the benefit of her experience in this work.
During the remainder of Mrs. Hall's absence her duties were
undertaken in an efficient manner by the Domestic Help Service
Clerk, Mrs. M. Smitten, who was provided with part-time temporary
clerical assistance.
Mrs. C. M. Hall, Domestic Help Organiser, reports as follows
with regard to the year under review:—
"The number of applications for domestic help in the
area during 1956 showed an increase on previous years and the
provision of assistance to all categories of sick people continued
unabated. The service continues to be administered as in
previous years and the number of visits carried out was 1,832.
"For various reasons the number of full-time helps
decreased from twelve to eight and the present practice is to
engage more regular part-time helps rather than take on more
full-time: during the year an average of 217 part-time helps
were working each week. During the summer months
recruiting was good which made the general situation easier,
but the latter months of the year saw the usual increase in
demand, but up to the end of the year all requests were met.
"The number of cases carried forward into the New Year
shows that the need for domestic help is greater than ever and