Aged-care suggestion

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33650, 27 September 1974, Page 16

Aged-care suggestion

A suggestion that parishes might relieve waiting lists of homes for the aged by running small homes themselves was made to the annual meeting of the Presbyterian Social Services Association in Christchurch on Wednesday evening.

Dr A. L. Sutherland, an eye i specialist and former medical : missionary, said that child- ! ren were now being fostered out rather than being placed in institutional care, and some parishes were making homes available to immigrants. Why could parishes not make available private houses, providing a type of

life that was not too much different from the one that the elderly resident had known in his own home? asked the Rev. H. J. Crawford. Old persons entering institutional care, though it be of the best kind, were often

bewildered by the process. A modified “boarding out” scheme could prevent this, said Mr Crawford, a chaplain at Sunnyside and Templeton hospitals. Dr Sutherland asked the P.S.S.A. committee to explore and if possible implement ways to help relieve pressure on aged-care facilities. Mr J. F. Tasker, the deputy superintendent secretary of the P.S.S.A., said that the possibilities of such a scheme were already being ■ considered, and an appointment would be made to help investigations.