Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 42

of voluntary agencies is a necessity in times of emergency. The British Red Cross Society, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Services, CARE, the kai fong associations, Lutheran World Service and the Salvation Army are among the most active in providing or distributing, according to their capacity, cash grants, blankets, new and used clothing, food parcels or cooking utensils. Appendix 16 gives the details of the department's emergency relief services during last year. Since 1965 it has been agreed that Government should be the active partner in times of emergency but should feel free to call upon the voluntary agencies for whatever material assistance by way of blankets, clothing, eating utensils etc. it may need. Regular meetings are held to ensure complete understanding. Consideration is being given, at the request of the voluntary agencies, to the making of a film illustrating how action is organized to deal effectively with such emergencies. The annual report of the Trustee of the Community Relief Trust Fund is published separately, but its terms of reference and membership also appear in Appendix 2.

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

67. However, most of the Relief Section's energy is devoted each year to the relief of individual small scale hardship. Though it is now recognized by a small but slowly growing section of the community that social work is a constructive branch of the social services and a positive force for rehabilitation in the community, social welfare is still often identified in the untutored mind with relief, that is with the doling out of alms. Public assistance to-day is not as simple as it may appear to those who have not studied it in action. Each applicant's circum- stances are studied in the setting of his family and home, to determine the real need and to see whether any particular kind of assistance would be a step towards greater independence or would tend to induce irresponsibility. Support for the family unit is the first aim. Counsel- ling is an integral part of this work, because very often the person requiring relief suffers from other problems than merely material or financial ones. The general object is to assist those who because of distress may have to rely temporarily on relief to become self-supporting as rapidly as is practicable. The skill and experience of a caseworker is needed to clarify the client's problems and help him to mobilize his own resources to cope with his difficulties. To be successful, these efforts require careful assessment by trained social workers of the causes of

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