Elderly Deserve Dignity in Care

THE instinctive reaction of many people to the launch of a new drive to promote respect for older people in care will be despair that such a campaign is necessary at all.

However, while the appointment of a Dignity Ambassador may well reflect badly on British society, it at least represents a willingness by Government to throw the spotlight on to an issue which might otherwise languish in the shadows.

When one-in-five older people complain they are not treated with dignity in hospital it is clear that a cultural shift is required in the way health and care services are provided to the elderly.

A campaign to recruit NHS and social services staff to champion dignity, endorsed by a respected figure such as Michael Parkinson, is a worthwhile first step, but only that.

While there can never be any excuse for treating elderly people as second class citizens, the pressures on hospitals and homes undoubtedly contribute to an environment where staff struggle to offer the level of care they should. These pressures can only grow as the population ages and the number of people requiring care increases.

Ensuring all health and social care workers have the correct attitude to looking after older people can therefore only have a limited effect unless it is accompanied by more comprehensive changes to the care system. A good first step would be to clamp down on the practice of homes charging NHS patients top-up fees recently exposed in Yorkshire.

The Prime Minister last week launched a consultation on the future of social care in England. If the Government is really serious about ensuring people are treated with dignity in their old age it

will ensure this leads to concrete proposals for reform and is not just a short-term political device to relieve the pressure on Gordon Brown.

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