Two million older people now have some unmet need for social care
A new report finds older people are often struggling due to insufficient access to high quality NHS treatment, as well as social care, and that the system is currently under-prepared for population ageing.
09/10/24
New analysis of official data has found that 2 million older people in England are now living with some unmet need for social care.
Carried out by charity Age UK, the report concludes that England’s health and care services continue to be under enormous pressure so that, despite the best efforts of many dedicated staff, they are currently unable to meet the needs of all the older people presenting who require treatment, care and support.
Long-standing problems were greatly exacerbated during the pandemic years and despite some recovery since then in some areas, in others it has not yet proved possible to arrest a decline in capacity, service availability and performance, with extremely worrying implications for older people and their families and unpaid carers. This is all the more concerning in light of a rising older population, the growth of which will accelerate still further over the next decade, increasing by a projected 4.3 million by 2044.
However, more optimistically, the new report shows that significant numbers of emergency hospital admissions could definitely be avoided if the right kind of help was provided earlier on, before relatively minor health problems develop into full scale crises. The inability of services to intervene quickly or effectively enough to support older people at home leads to many waiting for very long periods in A&E and then becoming stuck in a hospital bed because of a lack of community-based care, creating huge problems for hospital managers and undermining their own chances of making a good recovery.
Age UK finds that in particular, very old people aged over 80 are often not getting the good and timely NHS treatment, care and support they need and ought to be able to expect. More than one in four (28%) are living with some unmet need for social care, and people in this age group are also the most likely to experience long waits in A&E, having arrived there by ambulance. Many have complex health and care needs and at the moment the system is often insufficiently geared up to meeting them, though there are some isolated, excellent examples of good practice. The Charity says they urgently need to be scaled up and that the forthcoming NHS Ten Year Plan is well-placed to be the vehicle for driving this through.
The analysis also showed that despite the number of people over 75 increasing by 18% since 2017, fewer older people are receiving local authority long term care.
Researchers also found that the social care sector is struggling to fill vacancies in almost every key adult social care role.
The report finds that primary (GP) and community health services, and social care, are either simply inadequate in terms of availability or are insufficiently joined up and planned. The charity says services must work better together in ways that enable older people in declining health to be identified and assessed, and the provision then has to be in place so they can benefit from early intervention and proactive support. Moving to a position where all these things happen, not just in some places, but everywhere, is the big challenge we face and is likely to require a shift of resources out of hospitals and into the community.
“It’s deeply worrying that the numbers of older people living with some unmet need for social care have now reached two million, out of a total older population in England of about 11 million," Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said.
"Some of these older people may be just about managing, but others will undoubtedly be struggling badly with everyday tasks like getting out of bed and washing, increasing their risk of problems like falls which could cause them serious injury, or worse.
“Some of the findings in our new report are frightening, in that they show how badly our Health and Care system is currently failing some older people, the oldest old especially, despite the professionalism and commitment of many kind and dedicated staff. These older people do not have time on their side and it is above all for their sake that we would urge the Government to work with the NHS, local government and charities like Age UK too, to chart a path to a better future for Health and equally for Social Care.”
View the full report: https://ageukgroup-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/jenny_lippiatt_ageuk_org_uk/EUL1F8-jCFpLqQcacucr70ABSB3LnTW6Mw7IJUhO76PFFg?e=Bd4oEq
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