ABSTRACT
When planning the provlSlon of any service three fundamental questions have to be asked. What is the need? How is it to be met? Who is to provide?
The flrst and second questions were discussed in Chapters 5-9, which dealt with particular needs and services, and a wider examination of need is to be found in Chapter 13. Chapters 5-9 paid special attention to developments in the statutory services. But there are other sources of help which are both more numerous and of longer standing. They are: flrst, the family; second, the community, expressed through voluntary organisations, volunteers and the wider network of neighbours and friends; and third, older people themselves. These three will be examined in this and the next two chapters.
