Older people's charity warns against too much "focus on poor quality care"

Advice and support charity Independent Age has spoken out against the negative image of care homes being reported throughout UK media.

The ‘Low Expectations’ report, published today by the Alzheimer’s Society, has led to widespread criticism of the care home sector and the quality of life that adults diagnosed with dementia are able to achieve. While also highlighting that 70 per cent of the public fear the idea of moving into a care home.

However, director of care services at Independent Age, Ian Buchan, believes that care homes performing well are being unfairly grouped with those not up to scratch and wants a stronger focus on the more specific issues homes face in safeguarding the quality of their provision.

Mr Buchan comments: “While bad practice has of course to be exposed – and a spate of recent reports have highlighted that there are problems across most services older people use, in hospitals, care homes and care received at home – there is also a great deal of high quality care that goes largely unnoticed.”

He continues, “Focusing on poor quality care means that care homes as a whole get a bad name and, as this report outlines, relatives reduce their expectations of acceptable care, becoming almost grateful for receiving just the essentials. Good care for older people, however, has to move beyond just feeding and managing personal care; people with dementia need social interactions as much as the rest of us.

“The real failure is the lack of information available to older people and their relatives when choosing a care home or other services; we are still reliant on limited information from the government regulator, the Care Quality Commission. It is as if the only information to choose a hotel was its AA star rating.”

Councillor David Rogers, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Well-being Board, sees the urgent need for fresh funding initiatives as the crucial factor in protecting care quality, however.

He comments: “This report shows the lack of confidence in a care system which is buckling under the weight of rapidly growing demand and years of underfunding. Local authorities want to offer a service which goes beyond a basic level of care but this is becoming increasingly difficult as our population ages, costs climb and the already significant funding shortfall becomes even more severe.

“The stark reality is that unless we see an urgent injection of money from central government to meet rising demand in the short term, alongside a major revision of the way social care is paid for and delivered in future, things will continue to get worse. Providing people with dignity in old age must be a priority for all levels of government. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.”