PROBLEM OF AGED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 13

PROBLEM OF AGED

“Red Cross Needs Better Policy” “The problem of the aged grows more acute. The Red Cross Society needs at national level a more constructive, co-ordinMed policy,” said Sir Alexander Gillies, president of the society, in his annual report. This year, in addition to the financial aid and gifts of clothing, milk, food, and medical supplies sent overseas, the society was able, together with the Government, to send a physiotherapist to Morocco for six months, and at the request of the World Health Organisation, two medical doctors to the Congo. Sir Alexander Gillies said that throughout New Zeeland local authorities were planning for civil defence, and Red Cross centres should take an active part in the arrangements. On a national level, the society had been appointed one of the two organisations responsible for giving instruction in first aid and home nursing to the public. “As long as we live in a disaster-prone world, our disaster relief fund is an immediate necessity. The response to it has been good in the last year, but demands on the fund were heavy and there remains a need to build up the fund for future emergencies,” he said.