Aid bureau may close

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 16

Aid bureau may close

The Emergency Home i Aid Bureau in Christ*' l church will close unless ' the Government res-, ponds with promised aid. This information was re- 1 ceived vesterdav at a meet- i in? of the social services and ■ public relations committee of . the Christchurch Citv CounTh*? commute* recorn* mended that a letter be sent to the Government, asking what had come of its earlier promises of support to the service Cr H L. Garrett said that more response could perhaps come from organisations which concerned themselves: with communitv service, and which could seek a Government subsidy by amalgamating with the Soma) Welfare Department, which employed a number of home aids Mr J Frv. the community welfare worker. <aid that the ■ bureau was a private enterprise that had failed through lack of Government subsidy The reasons given by the director of the bureau (Mrs. E A. Stonehouse) for its demise were maintenance costs which could not be passed on to the patients. Mr Frv said that a working: party set up bv the commit-'

tee two years ago to investigate the need for home aid senices found that, even with Mrs Stonehouse’s bureau services were inadequate. There would be a serious gap in social services in i Christchurch if the bureau were forced to close. Mr Fry said.