Elderly Care ‘Inadequate’

Provision of services for the elderly requires dramatic reform if the growing needs of the 21st century are to be met, a new report has claimed. Fit for the Future, an analysis of the changing state of elderly services in the UK has been published  by the Counsel and Care charity, argues that a number of factors are putting pressure on existing arrangements, making them incompatible with the changing and growing needs of the elderly.

It argues that Britain’s ageing population, rising disability and dementia levels and falls in the availability of informal care are clashing with changes to the property sector, increased expectations from service users and the growing importance of the ‘silver vote’ to create heightened demands in the coming years from the elderly.

As a result the report calls for a series of radical changes to the current state of affairs, calling on the government to assist carers with simpler bureaucracy, the elderly with better information and service providers to up their standards.

“The current system is confusing and alienating for many older people who find the costs they have to bear unexpected and unjust,” the report’s author, Jessica Asato, states.

“For a new system to command public respect there must be clarity about the need to share the costs of older people’s care and the benefits older people can expect to receive in return.”