Have this week's events brought good news or bad for older
people?
By James Holloway, Research and Policy Officer
This week heralded the launch of yet another comprehensive report
into the standards of care provided to older people. After
recent reports on shocking care in hospitals, this week's report
from the
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) focused on care at
home. While the report did say that half of the older people
it surveyed are happy with the standard of care they get at home,
the same cannot be said for the other half (who could be nearly
half a million older people) who are left recieving substandard
care.
Among the depressing examples of the effect of individual
negligence and outright abuse such as carers leaving one older
person stranded on the toilet, the root cause of much of report's
findings was left untouched in much of the media. In the
commentary piece we wrote for the
Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, we highlighted that
poorly managed council commissioning and monitoring of home care
contracts often has the end result of neglect and
abuse. Surely it's obvious that inadequate funding, making
contracts with the lowest bidding care agency and poorly paid and
trained carers will lead to continued neglect and poor care for
many older people? All in all, it's been a bad
week yet again when it comes to care for older people.
Let's hope that the EHRC's report can help raise awareness
that leads to real action on poor care.
It's not often that you find yourself wondering whether you'd
have a more fulfilling and happier old age with a good sex life, or
alternatively, playing the ukulele, but that's exactly what's been
perplexing us.
The
Daily Telegraph highlighted research by an American
university that found older people who maintain a healthy sex life
in retirement are most likely to enjoy a happy old age with
correspondingly higher levels of contentment and marriage
rates. Common sense maybe, but reminding ourselves of the
importance of good relationships could not be more important given
that the
Daily Mail wrote this week that the divorce rate among
the over sixties is rocketing because many newly-retired couples
find that they don't have as much in common as they
thought. While seemingly gloomy, the message from the research
the
Telegraph highlights still stands: better for your
health to be in a loving relationship than a loveless one so don't
be meek in taking the chance to find love anew!
Alternatively, if finding another partner's not right for you, the
University of London has a more musical solution - playing the
ukulele. As reported in
Mature Times, a year-long study has found that playing
a musical instrument can be the best way to stay positive and feel
in control in later life, as one woman said "it is difficult to be
sad while playing the ukulele".
While we can definitely claim that it's been a scientifically
verified good week for older people maintaining a
good sex life with a loving partner or for those who love to play
their ukulele, we still remain perplexed over which is better on
balance. Best we leave the last word on the matter to ukulele
legend George Formby. Although on second thoughts, he may well be
somewhat confused himself - make up your own mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd4cW4hZqVo
