When your day job is bringing a little sunshine into the lives of elderly people, this weeks headlines about the crisis in adult care come as no surprise. Here’s a blog that I wrote back in Feb highlighting the challenges – and most importantly a way forward.
A storm is brewing in the world of social care for the elderly. If there was a ” Social Care Richter Scale” it would be categorised as a “Hurricane”. We need to get our ageing population out of it’s path before the consequences are the most devastating ever seen in the world of elderly care.
The storm itself has been bubbling away for some time but it’s now gathering strength as a result of these prevailing conditions;
- Ageing population
- Increase in complex chronic illness
- Reduction in local authority budgets
- NHS stretched to breaking point
- 25% of hospital beds occupied by people with dementia
- Burden of care being left on the shoulders of loved ones
- Demoralised social care workers
- Lack of person-centred care services
It’s not too late to avert the disaster but we need to act quickly, think differently and focus our resources on primary, person-centred care for the elderly and their loved ones. If we continue to deliver elderly care…
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