Older People Want Real Choices About Elderly Care

A report carried out by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has revealed that the older generation wants to be offered “real” choices when it come to establishing what kind of elderly care they receive.

According to the survey results, social care should encompass all aspects of getting older, not just the medical ones and the respondents wanted social care organisations to ask older people what they actually want in order to help them to choose the best lifestyle for them.

Paul Snell, chief executive of the CSCI, said that the Making Choices: Taking Risks report was designed to highlight some of the risk-related factors that may prevent older people from living life the way they choose. It also proposes some ways that social care can support people’s aspirations and choices and identifies some challenges that still need to be addressed.

“People tell us that real choice means having real options, with the support to choose between them,” he added.

One of the anonymous elderly respondents explained that at times, they were left frustrated with the attitude of some of the care workers who assumed that the older generation were incapable of making decisions” You spend your whole life making decisions about things – your work, your relationships, your children – you don’t want to suddenly give up that responsibility because you’re older,” they said.