Help at Home Needed Amongst Elderly People

A report has been released in the UK indicating that thousands of elderly people in England are struggling at home with little or no help with day-to-day living.

The Independent Age and Strategic Society Centre think tank report, ‘The Bigger Picture’, has found that there are over 2 million older people in England who have difficulties with one or more activity of daily living, such as bathing or dressing. Of these, approximately 560,000 are estimated to have ‘substantial’ needs. Despite this, amongst this group it is estimated that 70,000 receive no help at all, and where people are receiving help 160,000 people are living with care and support that is inadequate.

In total, there are 850,000 elderly people who receive help at home today either funded by themselves or their local authority. Another 1.5 million elderly people rely on support from friends and family. Of these, 30,000 carers are themselves over 65 years of age and are receiving inadequate support which could be a risk to their own health and wellbeing.

As funding for care from local authorities comes under increased pressure in the future it is likely that families will have to take on greater responsibility for supporting their elderly relatives at home, either practically or financially.

Simon Bottery, Independent Age Policy Director, said: it "defies belief" how those who did not receive the right care were getting by.

Councillor Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, said:

"The next government must make sure that [it] puts adult social care on a sustainable financial footing to keep people out of hospital and support them in their homes for as long as possible. Failure to do so would mean some services will be tipped into failure and leave the most vulnerable members of communities worried and at risk of losing essential care."

Hourly home care and live-in care services in North Yorkshire are used by many families to enable their elderly relatives to remain in the comfort of their own homes for longer whilst retaining the maximum amount of independence possible. This plays a key role in avoiding crisis scenarios such as hospital admission or admission to residential care, both of which ultimately create much greater expense for both the individual and the local authority.