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County Council works in close co-operation with Voluntary Organisations, including
the Social Club for the Blind which meets fortnightly at the Christ Church
Hall, Turnham Green, and the Middlesex Association for the Blind, who maintain
a Holiday Home at Littlehampton, two Residential Homes for the Blind, and assist
financially and by way of gifts individual necessitous blind persons.
Blind persons are eligible for the loan of a wireless receiver through the
British Wireless for the Blind Fund, and the County Council has a scheme for
assisting blind and partially-sighted persons in the maintenance of wireless
sets.
Other services provided directly by the County Council or through a Registered
agency, include facilities for the placement of blind persons in employment,
courses of residential rehabilitation, training courses for mothers with
blind babies, the supply of embossed literature, special equipment and handcraft
materials, assistance in the disposal of handcrafts, and assisted holidays for
those in need.
welfare of handicapped persons other than blind
Schemes for the welfare of handicapped persons other than blind and partially-sighted
are operated by the County Council's Welfare Department under
the National Assistance Act, 1948; these cover the deaf and dumb and hard of
hearing, and other persons who are substantially and permanently handicapped by
crippling diseases or congenital deformity.
Services to the deaf and dumb and the hard of hearing are provided by appropriate
voluntary organisations, to whom the County Council makes grants in aid.
The County Council's Welfare Department has provided a Welfare Visitor for
persons in the Borough who are suffering from substantial and permanent handicaps
other than those already mentioned, and she works under the direction of
the Area Welfare Officer. She visits such persons in their own homes, with a
view to assisting them to obtain from statutory or voluntary sources (or both)
facilities, appliances, etc., which may benefit them. The help afforded, may,
for example, enable the disabled person to take part in social activities, attend
handcraft classes, obtain a needed holiday, or by provision of ramps for mechanical
chairs, handrails, and the like, give a previously non-existent measure
of mobility to a person who was chair bound or house bound. Advice and guidance
regarding personal problems is given and membership of a voluntary organisation
catering for a particular handicap is facilitated
Residents of the Borough needing any of the County Welfare Services briefly
referred to in this Report should apply to the Area Welfare Officer, Mr. H.S.
Wright, at the Local County Offices, Great West Road, Brentford.
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