Annual report : 1942 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York.

  • Society of the Lying-In Hospital of the City of New-York.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1942 / Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the City of New York. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/44 (page 16)
    REPORT OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT 1942 I have the honor to submit the annual report of the Social Service Department for 1942. During the past year there has been an increase in the indi¬ vidual case worker’s load from an average of 53 cases per month in 1941 to 72 in 1942. Despite this increase in case load, the expenditures for relief have decreased. This indicates that the obvious problems of financial relief have been replaced in a measure by the more subtle problems of lives and homes upset by the exigencies of war. The department has taken advantage of the increased volunteer service and has gratefully utilized the volunteers not only for clerical duties but for home visiting (under case worker’s super¬ vision), in the management of a playroom (a new project that has met with great success) and aiding the Occupational Therapist. In addition to this, two members of our Ladies’ Auxiliary Board, Mrs. Allan Locke and Mrs. E. Farrar Bateson, rendered invaluable service by their volunteer efforts in con¬ ducting the sewing class for mothers. The Occupational Therapy Department has continued under the direction of Mrs. Caroline Oppenheimer, who joined the department in April of this year. As the articles made are sold to the public, ingenuity must be displayed not only in suiting the craft to the patient but to producing salable items, and in this combination the work has been most successful. The free lending library for out-patients was more popular this year than ever before. The original grant for the purchase of books was exhausted and replacements were badly needed until Mrs. Crawford Burton generously donated twenty-nine books and an anonymous cash donation further bolstered the titles on hand. The usual lectures to the student nurses were made by the Director, who appreciated this opportunity of interpreting medical social work to them. [16]