Wyre Borough Council Strategy for Older People
The Wyre Senior forum reviewed Wyre Borough Council's Strategy for older people at their January meeting. Just to remind you this aims to :
- Strengthen the opportunities for older people to participate in activities and remain fully involved in work, leisure activity, housing, learning and community life
- To understand the needs of older people when delivering services
- Ensure all older people's health, safety, well-being, confidence and independence are improved
- Work with people to ensure that they can stay independent and remain living in their own home
- Improve travel options for older people
- Reduce isolation and promote inclusion for all older people.
The discussion centred on practices that could constrain the success of the strategy.
The traditional source of support for those without full independence has historically been , and continues to be, the family. The aim of the strategy is to support people (and their carers) in their own homes and communities wherever possible.
However, family life has changed in the last fifty or so years. The move to smaller nuclear families means that it is no longer as easy to share the caring role as widely as in the past. Society is more mobile and families are more geographically dispersed.
The challenge we face is balancing the increase in the number of older people needing help and the ready availability of those family members and friends able and willing to provide it.
We have moved from communities where family and friends watched out for each other to streets where residents hardly know anyone other than their closest neighbours. In this environment it is the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, who suffer the most.
There are commendable examples that recreate a culture of watching out for each other such as Neighbourhood Watch, but we need much more.
The well motivated move towards seamless services and so called multi agency working centred on the individual means that responsibility for delivery can become blurred. This can make it difficult to identify unique responsibility for the service being sought with the added temptation to shift responsibility along the chain. It can also potentially put the whole service at risk if an agency in the chain has a problem funding their contribution.
Services are increasingly provided by part time staff funded on a one to two year basis.
This can lead to short term uncertainties in service provision and longer term doubts about services continuing. Recent examples include information services provided by Age Concern and CAB.
Finally, expecting more service staff to undertake assessments of older people must be backed up with proper training and processes.
The forum doesn't have answers to these issues but are pleased to be part of the debate that will improve our understanding of how they can be overcome.