Retired urged to ‘face up to old age’

March, 2013

Unwillingness to face up to getting older threatens to condemn the newly retired to spend their final years in isolation or institutions, a coalition of experts led by a former care services minister warns today.

The belief that people should be “young forever” has created a taboo around ageing that could turn elderly people in the future into “passive victims”, unable to make a choice about where they live, they said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph.

The group, which includes Paul Burstow, a former care services minister, and Baroness Greengross, is calling for more openness among those approaching old age to the idea of taking steps now, such as downsizing, which could help them avoid moving into care homes.

They are challenging the idea that it is better to “sit tight” in the family home.

The group also includes the heads of 13 charities and private companies providing housing for the elderly. They say it is “to the nation’s shame” that many older people are faced with a stark choice between spending their final years in institutions such as nursing homes, or struggling on in their family home, despite loneliness.

Polls have suggested that one person in five aged over 65 in Britain spends the day alone, and a quarter of over 75s spend a typical weekend without seeing or talking to anybody else.

There are 1.5 million people in Britain over the age of 85, a figure set to double in the next 20 years, and to reach five million by the middle of the century.

Less than 1 per cent of elderly people in the UK live in retirement villages or in housing designed to be easily adapted as people get older so they do not need to move.

Mr Burstow said that while people are “emotionally tied” to the homes they have lived in for many years, many might benefit in the long term from moving to somewhere adaptable while they are relatively young.

“It is a conversation that people need to have,” he said.

Sourced from: The Telegraph, John Bingham

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