We all want to live in our own home as we grow old, but what can we expect in terms of support from the Government?
More and more people are staying put. We all want to and latest figures report that 90% of older people are living in ordinary mainstream housing. It is the Government's aim for people to be supported to live at home as long as possible.
But research published by Help the Aged last August indicated that 22 per cent of older people find it difficult to get around their own home and struggle with everyday tasks such as bathing and getting up stairs. And with the number of over65s predicted to rise by nearly 60 per cent to more than 15 million in 2031 it’s a future that many face. “If you are an older person who is expecting help from the local authority you have to be really pretty poor and very ill before you are likely to get very much,” Mervyn Kohler, Help the Aged advisor says.
His concerns are echoed by Stephen Burke, the chief executive of Counsel + Care, who says: “There are areas where people in substantial need cannot get help from the local authority. It might be help with shopping, cleaning and repairs, or they might need more personal care, help with getting out of bed in the morning, or with meals".
There remains somewhat a postcode lottery; what help you can get depends on where you are living. A small number of local authorities just provide for people with critical needs, leaving most older people with no support at all. That contradicts what the Government says about getting people to live in their own homes.
The key thing is to offer people somewhere to go for information and advice about the care and support that’s available. The need for local advice has been embraced in the North East by the Newcastle Elders Council, an organisation of “older people working for older people”.
Vera Boulter, a member who is 79, says: “Everyone wants to go on living independently in their own homes, but there are a number of barriers to that happening. There’s the wait to get aids and adaptations so that people can go on living at home. Some have to wait a long time for adaptations to be made when they come out of hospital or if their needs have changed while they live at home.”
A difficult component of the problem is older people’s perceptions of their problems. There is a process of realisation that needs to take place for both the older person and their close family before their needs can be recognised, even if these appear all too obvious to an outsider.
Poignantly, Help the Aged’s Spotlight report in 2007 featured the plight of Allan Barlow, 82, who has severe arthritis and lives at home with his wife on the edge of a large city. “You do worry about what you are going to do,” he says. “I’ve got a seat lift to get into the bath, but it’s been broken since six or seven weeks before Christmas. I ring up every other day about it, but nothing’s been done yet. I’ve not been able to have a bath since.”