Hello! I have woken up the blog again after a very long break. I have been engaged in some practical gerontology since my last post. In brief, my aged father had what should have been a simple investigative medical procedure last autumn under general anaesthetic. Instead of the day trip to hospital that we had expected he was in for several days, then prematurely discharged, then readmitted, then prematurely discharged again, as a result of which both he and my mother had to be found a care home. Although the one we found was pretty good, and very close to their own home, it proved a difficult transition to manage. We were able to make arrangements for my father to move back to the house in the new year, and had hoped my mother would follow, but sadly she had a couple of serious infections in the home, was admitted to hospital and died a few weeks later of pneumonia and underlying dementia. I don’t intend this to be a personal account so I’ll leave the narrative there.
What the story made clear to me is just how hard care of the elderly is. My parents had plenty of resources, two adult children able to help, many friends and relations, and it was still hard to get things sorted out and find satisfactory solutions. The NHS will only deal with medical problems, and local government has very little resources to support with social problems: even providing useful advice is difficult, or information about where to find paid-for services.
We know that social care for the elderly is a major challenge for policy makers in the UK and most developed countries. The cost of providing support whether social or medical, is substantial. The numbers of elderly people is growing year by year. If affluent, well educated professional people struggle to find what they need (my mother was a psychiatric social worker and my father a commercial accountant), then the challenge for poor people is even greater.
We have been hearing for the last two or three years that improvements in life expectancy have stalled, or gone into reverse. Much of the decline seems to be around higher mortality at advanced age – so mortality rates for the young and middle aged are much as before, but those for people in their eighties and above are not so good. My own observation suggests why this might be… hospitals are keen to discharge people as quickly as possible, and if discharged to their own homes they are essentially expected to fend for themselves. The quality of the clinical procedures might be fine, but the elderly need quite a lot of recovery time if they are to get back to their previous health status. More resources are needed… but better use of the resources currently available would help. And in the UK the buck passing between the NHS and local government needs to be sorted out. It’s not about providing everything free of charge, but making sure there are systems, whether state or privately funded, that can help the frail elderly live better, healthier lives.
Demographic Insight 