What needs to change for older people?

A five-year programme called "A Better Life", developed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), is to develop ways to improve the quality of life for all older people with high support needs in the UK.

Social policy,has up to now, focused on issues such as healthy ageing, helping older people to remain at home and the controversy surrounding the retirement age. It is essential, however, to address the needs of the large numbers of older people with high support needs who are already in residential or nursing care.

JRF is to commission a programme in which costed recommendations for policy and practice are clearly set out in order to assist all categories of older people with support needs, whether or not in residential or nursing care.

The programme will involve five main areas of work. This will include discussion with older people to find out what they need and want. An important concern is to significantly raise the standard of older people's quality of life in residential and nursing care, maximising their choice. This will be achieved by consultation and collaboration with My Home Life, the UK-wide movement led by City University and Age UK while working with Joseph Rowntree Trust care Homes.

Other areas include researching housing with care schemes for older people with high support needs to enable them to remain as independent as possible, and also receive the care they need. Alternative and more imaginative options will also be researched, from existing practices in other countries as well as in the UK.

The concerns raised in this programme are about all of us, not just the very elderly and infirm. We are all getting older and some of us will have very high support needs in the future.

As such, We need to challenge ageist assumptions by developing and promoting positive images and narratives of later life, which can be drawn from listening to the views and experiences of older people who are going through this stage.

A one-size-fits-all approach is no longer appropriate due to the increasing diversity of older people, with respect to background, education, culture, financial cirumstances, experience and resources. Many face all sorts of other problems including discrimination.

One important way forward is to develop ways of building communities and encouraging mutual relationships and support. This can particularly help people in care home settings, retirement villages or supported housing schemes.

Finally the carers of older people must not be forgotten as they need support too and are often older people themselves!

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