Campaigns of our times

The rising numbers of UK citizens in need of some form of care service are proving to be one of society’s overriding issues, with care campaigners getting behind efforts to highlight ageism as a major concern the public consciousness needs to adapt to. Fears that the UK does not value its elderly citizens enough, contrast with the advantages that a national anti-discrimination campaign backed by public sentiment would undoubtedly provide.

For those arriving and working within care services, such campaigns will not be alien to them. The chief social issues of the twentieth century, to combat sexism and racism, will be remembered by history as achieving major societal development but, for the people who lived through and adapted to those changes, the debate has now turned full circle. It is now our ageing citizens that are the subject of stigma and prejudice, for the burden their well-being places on the family, on public health services and the wider economy – a stigma that is no doubt exasperated by the undermining of individuality amongst those who experience a decline in mental health. Last year’s infamous outburst from Baroness Warnock, who claimed that pensioners had a ‘duty to die’ in order to help society even if they were not in mental decline, may have been widely-condemned but it was also seen as representative of the fact that ageism has not really been tackled by the country as a whole and that the right of elderly people to live a quality lifestyle needs to be championed on a wider scale.

The growing number of UK pensioners are now dependent upon the attitudes of younger generations becoming more sympathetic and dedicated to preserving personal freedoms throughout old age, while supporting the care sector in allowing those who develop mental and physical frailties to overcome them as much as possible, rather than being rendered inactive by circumstance. To ensure this happens, the ageism campaign has already been adopted by numerous charities and government bodies, with many celebrities having also felt the need to speak out over their personal experiences, including the best-selling author Terry Pratchett who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, former newscaster John Suchet who has recently moved his wife into a dementia care home, and comedy actor Tony Robinson who has long been involved in fundraising for dementia sufferers since his mother was diagnosed with the condition. This year has also seen the significant merger of leading charities Age Concern and Help the Aged, becoming Age UK, in order to benefit from ‘strength in numbers’ in what will possibly be a defining decade for such organisations.

Even more recently this week also heard the announcement of an enquiry into ‘disability hate crime’ by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, through which it has encouraged disabled people to come forward and report any incidences of abuse. A timely move perhaps in ensuring that the rights of disabled people do not become dwarfed by the ageism campaign, when the needs of disabled and elderly people can quite effectively be championed alongside each other and, at a time when an unpopular conflict in Afghanistan is the cause of many soldiers returning home having lost limbs and having their lives changed through disability, it would seem that public sensibilities are ready to open up to such sympathies. Hopefully when history looks back on the early decades of the twenty-first century it will recognise the care sector, its charities and campaigners as a major innovator for social change.