WELFARE OF OLD PEOPLE

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26692, 28 March 1952, Page 2

WELFARE OF OLD PEOPLE

Scottish Organisation Described -■ ..■■■■ OFFICIAL NOW VISITING CHRISTCHURCH A prominent Scottish social worker, Mrs J. Wilson, is particularly interested in seeing what the community in Christchurch is doing to help its aged. She is at present the guest of her daughter, Mrs David Bowron, of Christchurch. Mrs Wilson has visited the Jubilee Home and “Holly Lea,” and called at the Christchurch headquarters of the Red Cross Society to learn about its Good Neighbour Scheme. Mrs Wilson comes from Crieff, in Perthshire. She has been interested in welfare work for the last 15 years. For many years she has been county welfare officer of the Red Cross Society in Perthshire, secretary of the Old People’s Welfare Committee and Club in Crieff, and a member of the National Old People's Welfare Committee, which has ■ its headquarters in Edinburgh. As a member of these committees Mrs Wilson visits elderly persons in their homes, gives them meals and sees to their needs. She then reports to the national organisation, whose aim it is to help old people to retain their independence for as long as possible.

Help in Recipients’ Homes Voluntary helpers of the Crieff Old People’s Welfare Club provide a midday meal service for elderly people. It costs Is 6d a head to provide for a three-course dinner. The meals are prepared in school kitchens and a third of the cost is met by the Town Council, a third by the Crieff Old People's Welfare Committee and a third by the recipients, if they can afford 6d a day. Other helpers of the Old People's Welfare Club go into the homes of the old people each day to help with the housework. For this work they are paid by the Town Council. The welfare committee buys material and teaches crafts to the old people, and at the end of the winter season, a sale of the goods made is held. The groflts go towards buying more mania! This craft work helps the elderly people to pass the time during winter days and evenings. Mrs Wilson said welfare work among the aged had become a problem in the big cities of Scotland, where one in every six persons was over 65. Foot troubles of various types were the main causes of disability among elderly people. Her organisation paid for a chiropody service, added Mrs Wilson. She said homes for old people were being established with the help of Nuffield grants, which were sometimes as much as a third of the cost.

Old people’s welfare clubs had been established in most towns in Scotland and England.