Number of Elderly People Requiring Home Care Increases

Published 15 July 2015

Older people’s charity, Age UK, has released analysis indicating that there are now over 1 million elderly people in the UK who have difficulty with tasks such as getting out of bed, washing and dressing, but who are receiving no care at home.

The new data shows that a third of seniors who have care needs are being left to manage alone with no care. This represents a 100,000 increase on last year. Some striking figures from the analysis are:

• More than 1 in 3 of those who find it difficult to go to the toilet do not receive any help (140,000 out of 400,000)
• Over 4 in 5 of those who need help taking their medication do not receive any help (230,000 out of 270,000)
• Almost two thirds of those who find it hard to eat on their own do not receive any help (180,000 out of 290,000)

This analysis is particularly concerning when the number of older people living in the UK is increasing and social care spending by local authorities has decreased.

It is considered that this situation has resulted in many people having to fall back on primary and secondary care services (hospitals, GPs etc.), demonstrated by the fact that the number of emergency hospital admissions amongst older people increased from 1.8 million in 2005/6 to 2.2 million in 2012/13.

Carefound Home Care provides an award winning hourly home care and live-in care service to elderly people in the Harrogate, Ripon, Wetherby and Leeds areas of Yorkshire. The type of support offered to families can include anything from basic domestic support, companionship through to more specialist care such as personal care, medication help or dementia care.

Oliver Stirk, Director of Carefound Home Care in Yorkshire, commented:

“As the population of older people grows society is going to have to evolve funding, resources and services available to elderly people and their families. Increasing hospital admissions, longer waiting times for GP appointments and poor quality care / nursing homes are all the result of a failure to recognise the value of delivering specialist, preventative care at home.”

Oliver Stirk added:

“At Carefound Home Care we believe our professional home care service provided by trained, supported home carers is helping change the way senior care in the community is delivered, thereby reducing pressures on the NHS and other health care teams.”

To learn more about the hourly home care and live in care available from the Carefound Home Care team in Harrogate, Ripon, Wetherby and Leeds please do not hesitate to contact us on 01423 774070 or click here.

Source: Age UK.