Bodies Discuss Shortage Of Homes For Aged

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 12

Bodies Discuss Shortage Of Homes For Aged

In aiming to overcome the shortage of accommodation for the aged, organisations should concentrate on keeping the elderly people in their own homes, a meeting called by the Christchurch City Council to discuss the problem was told last evening.

“Old people do not want to go into residential homes or hospitals, that is the last thing they want,” Dr D. A. Andrews, of the Health Department, said.

Similar views were expressed by some other speakers. Mrs M. Kerr, a social worker at Christchurch Hospital, said

some incentive should be given people to encourage them to keep their elderly In their homes.

The meeting was attended by representatives of about 30 Christchurch organisations, including welfare groups and Government departments, by City Councillors, and by the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey). The chairman was the chairman of the council’s urban renewal and property administration committee (Cr M. R. Carter), who said at the end of the meeting that the views and suggestions expressed would be passed on to the council.

The council aimed to provide 100 pensioner flats a year, he said in opening the meeting. In recent years the council had been pleased to see that adjoining local bodies had also entered the field. But the council had experienced considerable difficulty in placing tenants who could no longer look after them-

selves, and at present there were 20 who should be in residential homes.

Big Field He did not think it was the city council’s place to provide residential homes, “. . . but the council will come into residential homes if it has to,” Mr Guthrey said. There was a big field for private homes, and the Government should make it easier for such homes to operate, he said. It was becoming more difficult for them to do so, or to expand, because they had to comply with an increasing number of regulations, and this was often very expensive. Mr Guthrey said the only reason that there were such splendid private homes was that the people running them were dedicated people. But they were not getting enough encouragement, and the regulations governing such homes should be relaxed.

Mr C. A. Pilgrim, representing the Foundation for the Blind, said that when homes were being built they must have geriatric wings. “I rather feel this is a Health Department or hospital matter.”

The question was who was going to pay for the homes, because the average person could not, he said. Cr P. N. G. Blaxall said he felt that the shortage of homes with geriatric wings must be blamed on the policies of the Health Department. He knew that there was a “change of heart” on the question now, and he was glad to see it.

Dr Andrews said registered, licensed residential homes in Christchurch provided more than 1130 beds for the aged;

The demand for accommodation for the elderly would never be met in Christchurch, nor anywhere else in the world, he said. The problem was increasing with further advances in medicine. “I am sure if you provided 1000 beds tomorrow, you would find that the next day there would be more people waiting. ...”

The essential was to find out the needs of the eldedly —not just the numbers on waiting lists, which could be deceptive, he said. A proper survey was needed. Particularly required was

the number of persons over the age of 80, but only the Social Security Department had such figures and they regarded them as strictly confidential. The chairman of the Canterbury branch of the Licensed Rest Homes Association (Mr L. O. SevickeJones) suggested that licensing of smaller homes was needed to give greater control. The secretary of the branch (Mrs A. R. McLachlan) said licensed rest homes in Christchurch provided for 450 to 500 elderly, most of whom were over 80 and who needed nursing care. The average fee for 24-hour seven-day-a-week care was $26, which was really very low.

Category of Infirm Dr H. R. Donald, representing the Christchurch Aged People’s Welfare Council, said the problem could only be solved with the close cooperation of the City Council. “It is going to take a long time to catch up, but I do not agree we will never reach this target,” he said. There was a need for more accommodation for those elderly people needing nursing care. These people were not sick, they were infirm, a category the Health Department, for years, had not recognised. “But we might be almost around the turn now to getting the department to admit there might be such a category. “I do not think we will make any headway until we have somebody with sufficient financial background and power to act,” said Dr Donald.