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146
enjoyable holiday at which the Department's specially adapted coach
was made available to the hotel to take the holidaymakers out and about.
Homes for
the Elderly
Professor Townsend used the phrase "at home or in a home" when
discussing residential accommodation for the elderly. Implicit in this
phrase is the suggestion of attitudes held at the beginning of the century
- of attitudes that Part III Welfare Homes gave residential institutional
care, oblivious of affection and individual consideration. Redbridge Welfare
Homes are considered not as residual care establishments but as
homes catering for individual needs as opposed to institutional care.
They are indeed only one facet of the wider range of overall services
provided for the elderly - overall services which include Housing
Department flatlets, Voluntary Organisation homes, Private homes, the
Day Centres, home helps, district nurses, "meals-on-wheels", the visiting
G.P., social worker or voluntary worker, not forgetting the family
who, at times, undergoes considerable stress and strain in devoting care
and attention to the aged relative.
Even within that facet of "a Council Part III Home" however, we
are endeavouring to cater for varying degrees of care. Mention has been
made of the family under considerable strain with an elderly relative.
Increasingly short-stay beds are being used to relieve that strain enabling
both the family and the elderly relative to enjoy a short change of
environment and, in fact, proving that "at home" or "in a home" can be
complementary and not opposite concepts.
Again, an experimental venture with "Day Care Residents" at Peggram
House is proving successful; the elderly people being transported
morning and evening from and to their own homes, thus avoiding the
depressive effects of long, lonely daylight hours. There has been a total
of 269 Day Care attendances at Pegram House from the period June to
December, these attendances not only being of benefit to the elderly
people concerned, but also serving to relieve the pressure arising from
a waiting list for permanent admission which is still in excess of 250.
Increasing thought is also being given to rehabilitative work. The
appointment of an Occupational Therapist has led to an increase of
occupational handicrafts within the homes and in addition practical encouragement
far self involvement by the residents in the day-to-day
life and running of the home is being given. In fact, with those numbers
of elderly who substantially improve after admission to one of our homes