DR ROS ALTMANN, SAGA, COMMENTS ON LATEST CARE CRISIS RESEARCH

DR ROS ALTMANN 
DIRECTOR-GENERAL, SAGA 
PRESS RELEASE 

May 30, 2011.

DR ROS ALTMANN, SAGA, COMMENTS ON LATEST CARE CRISIS RESEARCH.

Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General, Saga, commenting on AgeUK research into the care crisis, said:

“Report after report flags up an impending cataclysm in social care. But while there appears to be a great deal going on, still nothing appears to be happening.  Local authorities keep cutting back, more and more people lose their homes to cover care costs and the numbers in need keep growing.  Even the £2billion extra that Government promised is not ring-fenced, nor is the £400million additional money for desperately needed respite care for carers.

“The figures speak for themselves - social care has been neglected and this leaves hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people at risk. 

"Short-sighted cutbacks, with the majority of local authorities taking away care from those with moderate needs, will ultimately cost far more in the long-run.

"By cutting back on care, we will see far more people needing expensive hospitalisation, instead of being supported at home.  This is absolutely unsustainable.

"As the population ages, with the numbers over age 90 set to treble in the next 20 years, the outlook is even worse.

"We as a nation and a culture seem to be dropping into a combined mindset that ‘it won’t happen to us’ and ‘it can’t possibly be that bad’.

“It is an enormously dangerous social and cultural mindset, perhaps compounded by the factor of the army of carers who choose not to complain, who simply get on with supporting their loved ones – unpaid, unheard and, in turn, unsupported themselves.

“Those voices should be raised.

“It is time for some serious reform of our system.  Policymakers are failing our elderly and frail: it is not just the financial strings that need to be pulled, so too should the heartstrings.”

Ends

Further information:

Dr. Ros Altmann
Director-General, Saga
ros.altmann@saga.co.uk
07545 504513
Twitter @SagaRosAltmann