Older Persons Consultation

Older Persons' care is a bug bear for me.

I tend to think the care provided is significantly lacking for Older People, from Sheltered Accomodation to Care Homes accross the county.

Kent County COuncil is currently consulting on Older Persons Care.

This consultation is open until first of November 2010.

I think the consultation is integral to democratic process and everyone should take the opportunity to think about the needs of older people.

Kent has a significantly ageing demographic, especially around the coastal areas and by 2012 the UK will have more than 50% of people aged 65 or over.

In spite of this, we do not have resident wardens/scheme managers in Sheltered Housing, we have a Primary care Trusts where 60% of the people they treat are Older Persons yet they only commission 25% of Older Persons services and we have a society that generally prefers to ignore older people.

Society is judged by the way in which it treats its older people, and at the moment the level of services allocated to them by public services is nothing short of deplorable.

Everybody has a grandparent or a relative who is likely to need more care in the future. Everyone will become an older person needing more care.

Please exercise your democratic right to comment and probe the main providers of these services, Kent County Council. It's like the lottery, you have to be in it to influence it.

Even if we move to the proposed Big Society Scheme by the Coalition Government, we want to ensure that the bodies that Kent County Council commission to run and maintain the care services for Older People are not driven by the need for profits and margins, is not incentivised or held to account by a bonus culture, but there to provide the care that is needed, wanted and protected to ensure that the human rights of the current residents and the residents to come are protected.