Not Dead Yet: A Manifesto for Old Age. Julia Neuberger
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a similar kind of recognition, and equal opportunities for social contact and meeting people. A great deal of this goes on already, but there needs to be much more if we are going to provide the kind of social care an ageing population requires. It does not have to be useful in the strictly utilitarian sense, but it does have to be useful to the person who does it. And, as the National Trust does so well, it has to have recognition and status.
A massive opening up of public services by inviting in tens of thousands of older volunteers. They will be the driving force that humanizes them, makes them effective and making sure that older recipients of care get the kind of humane service that they deserve. The way this can be done is to expect former hospital patients, for example, to play their part after they have been discharged, as part of a wider support network, checking up on patients who have been discharged, or engaged in other vital forms of outreach. What can be done in the NHS can be applied to other public services too, especially if the role of health centres and schools – even perhaps police stations – could be expanded to reach out into the local community and match surrogate grandparents with younger families and children who need them.
Notes
Chapter 2
1 Joan Bakewell (2006), ‘What I see in the mirror’, Guardian, 7 Oct.
2 Diana Athill (2007), Somewhere Towards the End, Granta, London, p. 15.
3 Michele Hanson (2006), ‘Ladies – let yourselves go!’, Guardian, 30 Aug.
4 Virginia Ironside (2007), No, I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club, Penguin, London.
5 Age Concern discussion forums (2005): Should I dress and live like the age I’m supposed to be? http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/discuss/index.cm
6 Independent (2006), 29 Apr.
7 Hamish McRae (2005), ‘Pension reform is one thing – persuading us to work longer is another’, Independent, 1 Dec.
8 Observer (2006), 12 Feb.
9 Social Exclusion Unit: Older people and employment web page.
10 Roberston, I., Warr., P., Butcher, V., Callinan, M. & Bardzill, P., (2002) Older People’s Experience of Paid Employment: Participation and Quality of Life. ESRC Growing Older Programme Research Findings no. 14.
11 Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2003), The Role of Flexible Employment for Older Workers, York.
12 Doyal, L. and Payne, S. (2006), Older Women, Work and Health: Reviewing the Evidence, Help the Aged and TAEN (The Ageing and Employment Network), London.
13 James Harding (2007), ‘UK plc is undervaluing age and experience’, Times, 1 Jun.
14 Janet Street-Porter (2005), ‘Our ageist attitudes have got to change’, Independent, 8 Sep.
15 Times Online (2006), 8 Feb.
16 Sally Price (2007), Volunteering in the Third Age: Final Report, VITA, London.
17 Age Shall Not Weary Them Nor the Years Condemn: Retired and Senior Volunteering Today, WRVS and CSV (2006)
18 Ibid.
19 WRVS (2007), Press pack for WiseLine launch, Nov.
20 Colin Rochester and Thomas, Brian (2006), The Indispensable Backbone of Voluntary Action: Measuring and Valuing the Contribution of Older Volunteers, VITA and Volunteering England, London.
21 WRVS and CSV (2006), Age Shall Not Weary Them Nor the Years Condemn: Retired and Senior Volunteering today, London.
22 Metropolitan Jewish Health System (2003): An Evaluation of Elderplan’s Time Dollar Model, New York.
End begging for entitlements
We’ve been together now for forty years, And it don’t seem a day too much.
Opening lines of the popular song ‘My Old Dutch’, sung at the poorhouse gates where the performer is about to be separated permanently from his wife
While I don’t have a problem getting out of the house, it’s hard to find somewhere affordable to go. The cost determines what you can do. I’d like to go out more but I can’t afford to. If I can’t afford something, I just don’t have it. Things aren’t always easy, but you get through. I’m not defeatist – I can cope with most things … The only thing I can’t cope with is missing the wife.
Gerald Williams, 70s, quoted in Help the Aged Spotlight report
It is a good quarter century ago since I first got a wake-up call about some of the difficulties older people have with money, but it still feels shocking even now. I was a rabbi in Streatham at the time, and there was an older woman whom I came to know, who had been pretty confident and adept at making the benefits system work when I first knew her. Then she had a particularly nasty episode of mental illness, and when she had recovered she found enormous difficulty summoning up the gutsiness she needed to deal with the benefits office. She couldn’t bear to go there by herself, so I went with her as her rabbi. As extra comfort, she also brought along her dog.
The dog was the first problem: the benefits staff were very difficult about her bringing it in. But there then followed the most extraordinary, frustrating and undignified interview. The benefits officer kept asking her for evidence to prove who she was. This was particularly peculiar because I was there to vouch for her, and I had brought my passport to prove who I was. But the real point was that not only was she well known to the system, but this benefits officer actually knew her.