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at the Southall Community Centre. The approximate membership, after a temporary breakdown
in the operation of the club, had returned to over 20 by the end of 1958. Members
make themselves useful to the Community Centre staff in little ways, and this is of considerable
therapeutic value.
The Hard of Hearing Club:
This Club, which was inaugurated in 1955, continues to be popular and useful to its
members, who number about 40. The Committee is very energetic and the programmes
arranged for the members were varied, interesting and often directly useful in helping them
to come to terms with their disability. There was an average attendance at each meeting of
70-80. The Club meets every Wednesday and has a Welfare Committee with individual
members allocated to certain areas of the Borough, and in this way absentee members of the
Club can be visited and perhaps helped if they are in any need.
The programme was arranged so that nearly all the members, many of whom have been
deaf or have had limited hearing since childhood, became able to take an active part in the
Group and in the work of the Middlesex and Surrey League for the Hard of Hearing.
Members who when they first joined the Club were unwilling to come forward in any way
because of their disability gradually came to take an active part in the group activities and
as a result were able also to live a much fuller life outside of the club. The Welfare Committee
continued to do excellent work and they did not only cater for the members, but also for any
person in the Borough suffering from deafness or defective hearing. In the past year many
have been helped and given advice on hearing aids and how to get the maximum benefit out
of the aids. The hospital where Medresco aids are supplied was very co-operative, the group
programmes being displayed in the waiting rooms of that hospital.
The Club also arranged social events for its members and one of these was a party for
thirty deaf children from the Heston School for the Deaf.
Diabetic Club:
The Club for Diabetics, started in 1956, continued to function throughout 1958. This
Club was founded to enable sufferers from diabetes to meet together socially, to have the
opportunity to discuss their individual problems with fellow sufferers and to hear authoritative
talks from speakers particularly interested in diabetes such as doctors, nurses, nutrition
experts. The membership was 45 and the attendance at monthly meetings averaged about
35 but altogether some 120 diabetics have enjoyed the benefits of the club since its formation
in 1956.
Home Advice Group:
This Group, created for the purpose of assisting and advising mothers with problems,
continued to function throughout the year. Meetings were held weekly at first in a room at
The Grange, The Green, and after April in a room at the Work Centre for the Elderly in the
Municipal Sports Ground. A programme of interesting discussions, demonstrations and
specialist speakers was carried out during the year. The Group is assisted financially by the
Housing Committee of the Borough Council and is under the direction of a Co-ordinating
Committee of officials of the various bodies concerned with welfare of the family. The
membership increased to 16 by the end of the year, with an average attendance of 12.
Welfare of the Blind and Partially Sighted:
The welfare services for blind and partially-sighted are the responsibility of the County
Council under the National Assistance Act, 1948.
The County Council's Welfare Department provides a Home Teaching service, the
object of which is to enable blind and partially-sighted people to lead as full and active lives
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