CARE OF AGED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 7

CARE OF AGED

National Conference Next Month

GROWING PROPORTION OF OLDER PEOPLE (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 26. “I am hopeful that the outcome of the national conference from June 14 to June 17 on the care of the aged will bring a further improvement in the organisation of the work being done in New Zealand on behalf of old people,” said the Minister of Health (Mr J. R. Hanan) tonight.

The Minister issued a brochure containing much historical and statistical information on a wide range of measures designed to assist and encourage interest in the problems of the aged, and said that any improvements must largely depend on a full exchange of information and opinions among all concerned with the problems of caring for aged people. In the introduction to the brochure it is said that the care of the aged is one of the most serious and complex of the many social problems confronting New Zealand today. The proportion of older people in the growing population has been steadily increasing, until today a national problem has arisen. The most important contribution to the solution of the problems involved must continue to come from the old people themselves, their friends and relatives, and their local communities, including local authorities and voluntary welfare and religious groups. In 1881 one person in about 40 in a population of 489,933 was 60 years of are or more- By 1951 one person m about seven was 60 years or more m a population of 1,939,472. By 1962 the population is expected to increase to about 2.382.000, of whom 294,000 would be 60 years or over, and by 1972 the total population is expected to 2,181,000 and to include over the age of 60 years.