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137
WELFARE SERVICES
(by R. W. Hall, Chief Welfare Officer)
This changing service constantly having to review its
attitudes and policies seems during the past year to have
consolidated its position in the borough and to have improved
contacts with those in need in Redbridge. All year we waited
for the publication of the Seebohm Report with its forecasted
proposals for radical changes in the structure of the local
authority social services but unfortunately the report is not yet
available. We were however able to welcome a team from the
London Boroughs Management Services Unit which probed our
organisation and methods for a number of weeks, showing great
interest in the service and making many useful suggestions.
Their report is looked forward to with interest and a keen
desire to make our service even more effective.
The two reports mentioned above will doubtless call for a
closer integration of the social services with loss of Identity
for the existing separate departments. The Welfare Service is
willing end anxious to take up triis challenging new situation
believlnf; that with hard work and goodwill it can only produce
a better service for the less fortunate in our community.
Homes for the
Elderly
What a pleasure it is to report that the Ministry of Health
has give n the go ahead for the new home to be erected on a site
in Hermon Hill, Wanstead and by the time this report is printed,
work will have commenced with a completion scheduled for the
end of 1969. The home will accommodate 50 elderly persons
requiring care and attention and will have within it a special
unit for the elderly mentally infirm.
After 20 years of feverishly seeking for more and more
places in homes for the elderly during which time the need for
experimentation and development for new ideas has almost
been crushed by the pressing demand for new places of almost
any sort, we are slowly turning to a closer examination of
what has been provided and what is needed in order to ensure
that those in our care can use their talents, exploit their
abilities and give rein to their interests to the limit. No longer
can we think in terms of providing insulated communities
shielding them from all risks and dangers within and outside
the homes, wrapped in a cocoon of loving care which risks the
stifling of all individuality. The elderly in our homes have the
right to participate in all the activities within them and to
influence these activities.