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The supporting team consists of workers of many professional disciplines
all of whom must combine their efforts to provide an environment in which
the handicapped person can live a comfortable, productive and satisfying
life within the limits of his handicap. The personal efforts of those involved
are assisted by the provision of practical help in the form of nursing aids
such as special beds, hoists, mattresses and the independence of those less
handicapped is maintained as far as possible by the provision of physical aids
to daily living which enable them to carry out many tasks with greater ease
than they could otherwise do. Occupational therapy, particularly when it is
associated with some financial reward, provides an incentive to continued
activity and does much to overcome the inertia which sometimes follows severe
physical or mental handicap.
The success or failure of nurses and social workers often depends
upon the availability of adequate domestic support. The Home Help Service
occupies an honorable and essential place in the domiciliary team and it is
a continued source of worry that recruitment of home helps shows little
sign of improvement. There is need to improve the status and pay of workers
in the Home Help Services and although the recruitment position is no worse
than it was, every effort that has so far been made has produced only a
temporary improvement of the position.
I am glad to be able to report further progress in home care of the
elderly both by voluntary effort and the Council's services. The number
of elderly persons requiring assistance is, however, continually increasing
and there is a pressing need for increasing the provision of flatlets with
warden supervision both to lessen the demand for scarce residential accommodation
and to cater for the very considerable number of elderly persons living in
houses too big for their needs and capabilities. In this connection too
little regard is paid to the fine way in which many ordinary families care
for their elderly relatives. In some cases it is they who need help in
situations created by their own efforts rather than the elderly person for whom
they are caring, and it is not uncommon to find a "young 60 or 70 year old"
needing relief or falling ill when caring for an"older 80 or 90 year old".
The Borough's provision for the physically and mentally handicapped
has taken a great step forward with the opening of a Work Centre in the
old Civil Defence Headquarters in Mulgrave Road, Sutton. Further details
of the work of this Centre will be found in Part 5 of this report. At the
outset a modest scheme was established which rapidly grew both in terms of the
numbers of persons attending and the quality of work done.
Voluntary effort has a large part to play in the field of community
care and this continues to grow. It would be invidious to mention
individual organisations who are undertaking a truly great amount of work in
the Borough. Without exception individual voluntary organisations have
responded to the challenge of the increased demand for service they have
experienced since the formation of the Borough. There' is, however, growing
indication that in order to achieve the most effective deployment of voluntary
effort some organisations will find it necessary to co-ordinate their
services with one another and where two or three of similar nature carry out
their work in over-lapping or adjacent areas, they may find advantage in
combining their efforts.
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