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Pre-Retirement Association of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
19 Undine Street
London SWI7 8PP
Tel. 01-767 3225
A registered charity, PRA is the major national member organization
promoting education, planning, preparation and support activities
for those requiring assistance in coping successfully with their
retirement. PRA advises companies, public corporations and
governmental bodies on pre-retirement education for older staff. It
also specializes in seminars and study courses for individual
members, who receive the monthly retirement magazine, Choice, and
provides information on pre-retirement courses run by local
education authorities, adult education institutes and voluntary
educational bodies. There is a free PRA legal 'helpline' service,
and free counseling over a range of financial questions.
Help the Aged
St James’s Walk
London ECIR OBE
Tel. 01-253 0253
Widely recognized as an authority on the needs of the elderly as
well as for its international fund-raising activities. Help the Aged
provides a valuable information service, backed up by a variety of
leaflets on the special practical and emotional problems of old age,
from foot care to taking precautions against doorstep salesmen, to
bereavement. Help the Aged provides grants for organizations like
Research into Ageing, to enable young people to find out more about
elderly people’s requirements, and to continue to work with them.
Winter Warmthline and Be Safe are two of the major campaigns
conducted by Help the Aged with government cooperation. Other
practical ways in which the organization helps old people cope with
special stresses include their community transport campaign and the
community alarm program, a 24-hour telephone-based link.
Age Concern (England)
60 Pitcairn Road
Mitcham
Surrey CR4 3LL
Tel. 01-640 5431
This other major organization for the care of the elderly also
operates at three levels: fund raising; local groups offering a
range of facilities; an information policy which includes dealing
with problems and queries by telephone, and a letter-answering
service.
National Carers’ Association
29 Chilworth Mews
London W2 3RG
Tel. 01-724 7776
The Association aims to develop appropriate support for carers, that
is, anyone whose life is in some way restricted because of the need
to take responsibility for the care of a sick or elderly person. It
encourages carers to recognize their own needs, and to cater for
them through a national structure of 70 branches and groups. It
provides information and advice, producing a number of fact sheets -
for example, on finding your way round benefits.
The Association brings carers’
needs and problems to the attention of government and other policy
makers; its campaign Caring Costs, in collaboration with over 20
other voluntary organizations, aims to relieve financial hardship
and stress for carers by helping them to achieve an adequate income.
Given that over a million people
in Britain - husbands and wives, sons and daughters, parents and
others - look after a relative who cannot manage alone at home, the
scope of the Association’s work is very wide-ranging, and through
its carers’ support groups does much to relieve the stress and
strain of what can be emotionally and physically exhausting,
isolating work.
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