View report page

(3) The maintenance of a medical equipment loan depot at
No. 16 Heathfield Terrace, Chiswick, W.4., open on
Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 30 to 8.30 p.m. Emergency
contact can be made with Miss Wallace - telephone
No. Chiswick 2353.
(4) Occupational therapy for the disabled ex-Service
pensioners and for Chest Clinic cases.
(5) The provision of a library service for home-bound
tuberculous patients.
(6) Home visiting in cases of distress and the provision
of urgently required household articles or home
nursing.
(7) The provision of volunteer workers to travel to and
from hospital with sick, aged, blind people or children,
and to give regular blanket baths to the sick
and nursing.
(8) The supply of instructors in first aid for Civil Defence
volunteers, adult and youth groups.
(9) The allocation of accommodation in Red Cross Homes,
shortorlong stay, for old people and convalescents.
(10) Attendance of personnel for First Aid duties every
weekend at the Polytechnic Playing Fields.
WELFARE OF THE BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED
The County Council is responsible, under the National Assistance Act, 1948,
for the provision of welfare services for the blind and parti ally-sighted.
There are resident in the Borough 105 blind and 28 partially-sighted persons.
18 blind persons are in full-time employment; of these 3 are in Workshops
for the Blind, and receiving augmentation and supplementation of earnings
from the County Council, and 2 are working as Home Workers under the scheme of
the Royal London Society for the Blind These also receive from the County
Council augnentation and supplementation of earnings.
The majority of blind people are not available for, or are not capable of,
training for employment owing to age or infirmity or for some other reason.
The County Council provides a Home Teaching service for the visitation of
blind and partially-sighted people in their own homes. The duties of the Home
Teachers are to advise blind and partially-sighted persons on all problems relating
to their welfare and of all the available social services, to assist them
in overcoming the effects of their disabilities, to give instruction in Braille
and Moon systems of raised type, in communication by means of the deaf-blind
manual alphabet, and in handcrafts. A handcraft class is held fortnightly at
the Area Welfare Sub office, 14a, Sutton Court Road, Chiswick,
The object of the Home Teaching service is to enable blind people to lead
as full and active lives as their severe handicap allows.
A number of the blind residents in the Borough attend the County Council
Old Time Dancing Class for the Blind, which is held weekly in Ealing. The
-38-