members come from many sources --enthusiastic reports from present members, newspaper publicity, referral from doctors, the Visiting Nursing Service, the County Heart Association and other community agencies. The center is open seven days a week, with planned activities four days and two evenings each week, the latter for business meetings and purely social gatherings. There is a full-time Director who coordinates the activities of the center, gives counseling service to the members, and assists in problems of housing and employment. There is both individual and group counseling, and a referral service to consulting psychiatrists. Classes are given in painting, weaving, woodworking and other crafts, as well as in nutrition, cooking, music appreciation, short story writing and even square dancing. Particularly helpful to the senior citizen are the lectures on health, and on time and energy saving with emphasis on housework. The annual spring art show is an eagerly awaited event. And fashion shows are given, with members as models, to prove that "over-fifty" clothes may be attractive and give the wearer a feeling of well-being. The weekly Thursday afternoon programs are varied and stimulating with talks on travel, art, music, hobbies, current events, readings of poetry and plays, and just plain "how-to-do-it" hinis. MEMBERS EARN MONEY Full and part-time employment in many cases has evolved as a direct result of classes taught at Little House. One member, who learned to weave at the center, is now its official weaving instructor and supplements his small income by taking orders for handwoven place mats, stoles and other articles. From the knitting instructions, members have made money by selling sweaters and argyle socks. Members of the hobby and work shop have sold children's wooden clothes racks and other wood and leather objects. Several full-time home mending businesses have emerged from the sewing classes. Little House members have done their share in many community service projects. They have made dolls for cerebral palsy children, afghans and bed socks for patients at the Palo Alto Veteran's Hospital, all of the layettes for the San Mateo County Adoption Center. They also do volunteer baby-sitting for young mothers who give their time to community welfare projects. One senior citizen of Little House does volunteer work at the psychology clinic at the Veteran's Hospital, where he grades, collects, and tabulate's information for use by trained research workers. Other Little House members are becoming active in the Civil Defense Ground Observer Corps. Senior Citizens Month is a sound tool for any State or private State-wide agency in this field to employ in order to gain "bonus" results from year-round efforts. But it is no substitute for a 12-months schedule of activities. Unless backed up with a January-through-Deember program, it can degenerate into a mere publicity campaign with no tangible benefits for the aged. Properly organized, a Senior Citizen Month campaign offers unrivaled opportunities to State and local groups for interpreting the needs of the aged, for demonstrating their abilities, for strengthening local committees and programs for the aging, and for reaching the public in a 31-day "blitz" barrage capable of blasting a community out of its complacency. Some of the High Lights In a rural central school, teen-agers in an art class painted posters in a State-wide contest ostensibly to dramatize the concept that "birthdays don't count," but really to encourage youngsters to think. A State-wide essay contest was also used to get children "involved and participating" in efforts to break down prejudices against the elderly. In an upstate city, businessmen operating a non-profit housing company announced they were taking over an ex-GI housing project for the purpose of housing old folks. And during the month, a public employment service office conducted an experiment in placement of part-time workers past 65. New York City's famed hobby show for the aged, sponsored by the Welfare and Health community organization work for the aged in our State, quickly initiated a city-wide plan by effective delegation of responsibilities to practically every known resource in the city, and by setting up a coordinator to integrate local activities. Came May 1! Governor Thomas E. Dewey teed off by officially proclaiming Senior Citizens Month and outlining the State's pioneering program for the aged. Mayors in some 30 cities followed with their own proclamation. One mayor offered free meeting facilities in a public building as a local Senior Citizens center. From then on, one activity followed another. There was a profusion of communion breakfasts, service club luncheons and banquest of community groups. During Health Week, activities were geared to health of the aged; during Mental Hygiene Week, which also comes in May, activities were slanted to the mental health of old folks. Some communities with poor leadership had to work harder than those with strong active groups. Efforts were uneven around the State, as might be expected, depending largely on the calibre of the personnel involved. We don't know how many jobs were opened for old folks as a result of The Month. We don't know how many persons altered their views about the aged. But we do know this: Senior Citizens Month provides an excellent springboard for research, for obtaining support for new services for the aged, for interpreting the needs of the aged, and for mobilizing all community groups in a cooperative, team relationship in behalf of the aged. Plans are already under way for 1954. The Hagerstown Trial Survey. Under the Public Health Service Task Force on Working Capacities of Older Persons, the Division of Public Health Methods is conducting a study of persons 45 years of age or older in Hagerstown, Maryland. This study has as its objectives: (1) the development of a smooth and effective interview for collecting information on the motivation toward employment of older persons not now in the labor force, with particular reference to poor health as an obstacle to employment; (2) the completion of analysis of data obtained by means of the interview developed in Step 1 in order to devise a scale of "availability" for work; (3) the testing of a brief and easily managed scale of limitations of activities caused by chronic illness or impairment. Schedules deal with work history, attitudes toward work, and, in the case of nonlabor force respondents, interest in taking work of various types and possible obstacles to employment. Certain social and economic particulars will also be obtained. AGING is a medium for sharing information about programs and Activities among agencies and organizations in the field, their staffs and board members and other interested individuals. Communications and items suitable for publication should be sent to Clark Tibbitts, Chairman, Committee on Aging and Geriatrics, of the Department, Washington 25, D. C. Subscription; 50 cents a year for 6 issues. Send to Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The printing of this bulletin has been approved by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, October 6, 1953. The Michigan Conference by Georgia F. McCoy Assistant to the Secretary U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare "Earning Opportunities for Mature Workers," the subject of the University of Michigan's Sixth Annual Conference on Aging, reflected a growing recognition of the practical fact that, in their advance in years, the older members of our society do not leave behind their material needs for food, shelter, and clothing, nor their emotional and social needs for recognition, companionship and, above all, their need to be useful. Retirement income and avocational interests may meet these needs for some, but it is increasingly clear that, for the many, continued employment is the practical answer to income maintenance and continues to be in age and, as in youth, one of the satisfactory methods of meeting related social and emotional needs. The question, therefore, as to whether need for work for older people is economic or social is essentially academic. The real issues are in the nature of the right to work as a basic human right, and in the grave economic and social problems stemming from the needs of mounting millions of older people for support and social opportunity. The conference provided a forum for the discussion of these problems, which were the underlying theme of the main address made by Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, on "The Health and Welfare of Our Senior Citi zens." Conference speakers, both in the general assemblies and in the workshop sessions, focused their discussions on these basic questions. But more significantly, this conference made strides forward in providing; in a series of workshops, opportunity to explore and study practical examples of employment of older workers, along with discussion of methods of meeting the problems of retirement, of prejudice, of changing capabilities, etc., which are encountered in employment of mature workers. In closing the conference, the challenge facing the nation was characterized as one of "pioneering" the use of millions of older workers in our industries and community services. This challenge can be met only through the cooperation of industry, government, the general public, and the older citizen himself, for at the last, as always, final action is in the hands of the individual. One of the suggestions coming out of this conference was that future conferences be planned to give older people a more active part in the conference programs. Conferences to Come American Psychological Association Division 20. This Division on Later Maturity and Old Age is holding its regular annual meeting in Cleveland in conjunction with the annual meeting of the parent organization. Division 20 ses sions are scheduled for Tuesday, September 8 and Wednesday, September 9, in the Allerton Hotel. Papers and research reports focus on health and employability, ways of estimating employability, age and psychological, personality, and adjustment. Thirty-four scientific workers are scheduled for formal participation. NOTE: This issue of Aging was unavoidably delayed because of various administrative difficulties. (ED.) Houston, Texas, Sets a Record Houston, Texas, has "set a record in Homes for the Aged for all other cities to shoot at," according to O. S. Burkholder, Administrator of Holly Hall, who has been concerned with the planning of homes for the aged over a period of some years. some now "In 1949," he writes, "the Houston Council of Church Women made a study of aged home conditions. In 1950 they decided to do thing about it. A citizens' board was organized. A combined board known as Holly Hall Retirement Home quietly raised $350,000... Holly Hall has now been in operation for fifteen months July 1953). Since its inception, the colored people have built a fine new aged home, the Jewish people are now building a fine new modern aged home, and the Baptists are building a new modern aged home. All of these groups made a study of the Holly Hall building. Plans for all of these new buildings are for one story and have incorporated many Holly Hall building features. Two other groups have visited and studied Holly Hall and have definite plans for new building. It occurs to me that within a period of three and one-half years this is some sort of a record for aged care, and would indicate that any city can provide for its worthy senior citizens if the proper effort is exerted." Holly Hall is located at 8304 Knight Road, Houston, and will accommodate 48 guests. Since the above was received, a further communication from Mr. Burkholder announces that Holly Hall will begin immediately on a building expansion calculated to double its capacity, and which will include a clinic for the chronically ill. A NEW HOMEMAKER SERVICE Another letter from Mildred G. Brandon, Executive Director of Sheltering Arms, 2809 Leeland, Houston, suggests a developing activity in another area of need. Sheltering Arms is a small Home which, for the past 60 years, has been giving residential care to some 10 aged white women. Recently, it has broadened its base of operations to include homemaking and other services to elderly non-institutionalized persons in the community. "The current program of Sheltering Arms," Mrs. Brandon writes, "is to develop specialized services for the aging, needy men and women of Harris County regardless of race, creed, or color. Emphasis is placed on services that do not duplicate those of other agencies. We are developing a day homemaker service enabling older persons to remain in their own homes and thus prevent institutionalization; we are offering casework counseling to older persons in their own homes who do not have this service from another agency, and to families regarding their problems with older relatives; we are developing foster home care for elderly people who prefer to live with families; and a specialized medical care program. "In the first two and one-half months, our caseload has increased from 10 to 59, almost 6 times as great. As our services become better known, it will probably increase faster. We have one fee case and hope to acquire more. We have a total of 19 pending cases now. We have developed two foster homes but have made no placement yet. |