07/11/05 - 'Investing in 'that little bit of help' can transform older people's
lives, says inquiry.

Health and social services could help transform the lives of many older people by investing more generously in small-scale, local services which offer them 'that little bit of help'. While growing sums of public money are being spent on intensive, high-dependency services, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation Inquiry report concludes that it is often simpler support - such as befriending and help with cleaning, DIY, gardening or pet care - that older people value most.

The Inquiry was set up a year ago by the Foundation in partnership with the charity Counsel and Care. It followed evidence that older people were finding it increasingly hard to obtain help with ordinary, day-to-day needs, even though it would make a real difference to their quality of life. Without appropriate low-level support, some older people were being left needlessly isolated and depressed in their own homes.

The Inquiry's report - presented today at a conference in London co-hosted by the Government's Social Exclusion Unit - identifies a 'Baker's Dozen' - 13 examples of existing support services that older people found especially valuable. These are:

Handy Help: a low-cost household repairs service operating in Trafford, Manchester.

Welcome Home: a volunteering project in Gloucestershire's Cotswold district helping people discharged from hospital with shopping, transport and making sure their home is tidy.

Help at Home: a gardening and home maintenance service in Amber Valley, Derbyshire.

Primary Night Care: visiting older people in Blackpool who need help during the night.

Befriending Service: home visiting by trained Community Service Volunteers in Amber Valley.

Sole Mates: a foot-care service run by volunteers in Oxfordshire.

Cinnamon Trust: a national charity based in Cornwall that helps older or terminally-ill people with pet care.

Digging Deep: older people in Newcastle teach children about gardening on school allotments.

RISE (Reach the Isolated Elderly): a community outreach project in Putney and Roehampton in London providing transport to lunch clubs, outings and other activities.

SMILE: a scheme based in Windsor and Maidenhead that gives older people access to exercise and leisure activities.

Activity and Social Centre: classes from computing to art run by the Wimbledon Guild, with transport to get there.

Keeping in Touch: Support for visually-impaired people in Malton and Norton, North Yorkshire with practical tasks, such as clothes shopping, form-filling or reading letters.

Supermarkets and Retail Stores: a number of supermarkets took part in a research project looking at ways to make shopping easier for older people, including connecting transport, seating and 'smart trolleys'.

The Inquiry Group, which included a majority of older people, argues that investment in programmes like the 'Baker's Dozen' would not only improve the quality of older people's lives, but also help to prevent crises and problems that can hasten demand for more expensive and intensive care services.

It notes the evidence that receipt of public sector home care services is increasingly concentrated among people whose support needs are high. Although the number of contact hours of home care provided has doubled in the past ten years, the number of older people with access to services has declined from almost 550,000 to 350,000.

Norma Raynes, Professor of Social Care at Salford University, who advised the Inquiry, said: “Older people value 'that little bit of help' to enable them to retain choice, control and dignity in their lives, but it has become very difficult for them to secure this. Rather than rationing home care services, and having them spread so thinly that they are ineffective, it would make far better sense for health and social services to invest additional resources in everyday services that older people would find most helpful.

“Thoughtful and innovative schemes, like the 'Baker's Dozen', may be relatively simple, but they can make a real contribution to improving the quality of life for older people. By investing in these services now, central government, local authorities and health trusts could expect to save money later. They fully deserve to be treated as core activities, rather than optional 'extras' only deemed suitable for localised, short-term funding.”

She added: “Given the way that older people are too often portrayed as a problem to be solved or a burden on society, it is worth emphasising that many of the ideas from the Inquiry have come from, and are run by, older people. Indeed, if local services are not firmly grounded in the knowledge and expertise of local people, there is a real risk that public money will be wasted.”

Source : Joseph Rowntree Foundation