HOMES FOR OLD PEOPLE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26260, 3 November 1950, Page 2

HOMES FOR OLD PEOPLE

TRENDS REQUIRING CONSIDERATION ADDRESS BY MISS NANCY NORTHCROFT "The town and country planner tries to arrange for a pattern of development within the peculiar conditions of the physical environment which will allow for the growth of a sound social and economic life in the community. And the old, surely, are a part of the social and economic life of any community,” said Miss Nancy Northcroft in an address to the Na-, tional Council of Women in Christchurch. The planner was therefore anxious to understand the particular needs of the old and the contribution they could make in the community, and also the proportions of their number so that adequate facilities could be provided. “It is a very big question with its own peculiar problems, and I have a feeling that we have not been seeing it as a whole,” said Miss Northcroft. Tables which she had compiled about people 60 years of age or older were not meant to be studied in detail with a view to drawing any' great conclusion from them, but some points emerged which might lead an investigator on to further and fuller inquiry.

For instknce. it was a fairly popular belief that there were more old women than men in the community; but they started to exceed men only after 1936. It was also evident that the proportion of old people in tije community had been climbing steadily These proportions varied considerably from town to town, so that each would have its particular problem. “Towns are living organisms with their own peculiar character and characteristics like the human beings that comprise them. They cannot all be treated alike,’’ Miss Northcroft said. Other tables showed that there were relatively more old people in the large centres than in the rest of the country. Was there a substantial drift of these people from the rural areas, and why? Did they move because they wanted to. or had to because there was no proper place for them to live in the country? "Above all we must resist the temptation to draw conclusions upon what we feel, at this stage of our lives, we might like when we grow older. Most of those whose responsibility it is to plan and build for the old are comparatively young. What is more, we live in a world of rush and scramble and there are many of us who no doubt dream of our old age as spent in some quiet little corner far from the madding crowd,’’ said Miss Northcroft.

English research showed that old people were happier when living in the midst of life. Hiey did not want, necessarily, to take part in it, but they wanted to see it and feel it about them. "It is prams passing by and not coffins that gladdens their hearts,* one man had said.

Most pensioners' cottages in Christchurch land they were some of the best she had seen anywhere) were down cul-de-sacs. Why did so many old men sit in Cathedral square? The parks, gardens, and river were handy, but in the Square there was movement and life. Was the resistance to being taken, to homes traced to a feeling that those concerned were being taken out of life?

The older people grew it was more difficult to make new friends and change their habits. They were happier. generally, in a familiar locality. Miss Northcroft said she did not know of the Government or other bodies plahning to build homes for the old in the great new suburbs now arising. If these homes were built in the right places there need be no worry about the old finding occupation, as they would still be able to serve their own community. Study of peculiar backgrounds to the situation varying requirements among the old themselves, and the part they could play, in the community should be undertaken with the realisation that the need could be satisfied only by undertaking a constructive' policy of building homes where they were> wanted and not just on any piece of land that happened to be vacant. This would require national and regional investigation.