London failing in its duty towards the elderly: research |
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Published
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Mon, 27 Jun 2005 23:35
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LONDON: An independent study of social care services in the capital has revealed that care and support services for older people aren’t what they ought to be. Consequently the elderly aren’t getting what they need.
The report which sought to determine the long term trends in the care industry found elderly care (for people over 65 years of age) to be under-funded and under-staffed. The study ordered by the King’s Fund was conducted by a team of researchers led by NatWest Group’s chief executive Sir Derek Wanless.
It points out that unqualified and untrained people are employed leaving the elderly exposed to risks of physical, psychological financial and sexual abuse by the people who are placed in charge of their care. For older people with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and dementia, the situation is even worse – there is a “serious shortage” of the requisite professional care.
Staff shortages mean the older people are left in the hands of untrained unprofessional carers, mainly immigrants. Such cares are incapable of identifying a medical crisis in time or even to care when the medicine runs out. Having little choice, older people had to stay in their own homes and be looked after such people.
The more alarming part of the report is that in the next two decades, the situation would become worse: there would be more elderly people suffering from such poor care. London’s current population of people aged over 85 years is at 108,000. This figure is expected to increase by over 50 percent, the report predicted.
The survey’s eye-opener findings were substantiated by hundreds of older people, health workers, care staff and local authorities. The findings, it is believed, could just as well reflect the situation in the rest of the UK.
The study was part of a major troubleshooting effort by the Government and King’s Fund which had commissioned four more surveys into London’s £1.6 billion care industry.
Some councils have had to make the difficult choice between using funds for the elderly and using it to help families and children. A few had chosen the latter option.
The situation reflects unclear policy and inadequate resources, besides insensitivity on the part of our policy makers. King’s Fund chief executive Niall Dickson said that social care services in London is “a failing market and needs to be improved in many ways”. The Government needs to spend more on care for the elderly. Pensioners should have more buying power which should give them more choice and improve the standard of care services available to them.
If the Government takes the right steps and makes adequate provision for this growing segment of our population, it would enable older people to lead independent lives and have the same choices and rights as any ordinary citizens.
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