Audley Care News
A response to The Dilnot Report
06 July 2011
Findings from The Dilnot report were issued on Monday this week (4th July 2011) and recommended that older people with property assets should have to use part of their personal wealth to fund their future social and care needs, but with a cap to protect individuals and their families.
Audley wholeheartedly endorse the findings of the report but urge the government not to panic those approaching retirement into making rash decisions about their future care. Preparing for retirement should not be a cause for concern.
At Audley we have developed a property and living option which allows those approaching retirement to release equity in a fair way for all concerned. Our retirement properties not only offer excellent housing but also come complete with on-site health and fitness facilities, a community of like-minded individuals and care on demand – all aspects of retirement which we think are critical to retirees long-term health and well-being.
As part of our commitment to finding long term solutions that meet people’s care needs, Audley is working on research with the International Longevity Centre (ILCUK) to explore the correlation between extra care living and the impact on health and wellbeing. We are confident the findings, released in September, will help support the step-change needed to ensure future generations are empowered to make a decision on their future needs, maintaining their independence, safe in the knowledge they have secure environment to grow old in.
Barbara Hobbs
Head of Care at Audley Retirement Villages
Caring for the elderly
18 February 2011
Having worked for so many years in the field of providing housing and care for older people, this week’s report from the Health Service Ombudsman sadly came as little surprise. Ann Abraham found that hospitals were often failing to meet ‘even the most basic standards of care’ for the elderly. Failing to ‘respond to them with sensitivity, compassion and professionalism’.
Aged care has always been the Cinderella of medicine despite the fact that 40% of all hospital beds are occupied by older people. Joan Bakewell’s article in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 16 February is well worth a read. (Click here to read the article.)
You may recall she spent a period of time as the ‘Government Voice of Older People’. As she rightly says it is time we began to treat the increasing number of older people with the respect that they deserve and which most other parts of the world do as a proper reflection of the fact that the longer someone lives the greater contribution they have made to society.
Dear Mr Clarkson…
20 January 2011
In his column in last week’s Sunday Times, Jeremy Clarkson raised the issue of paying for care in later life. More specifically his article highlighted the question – ‘who’s going to look after you when you can no longer look after yourself?’ A topic many individuals don’t want to consider or address until later in life.
With the cost of care increasing, Clarkson’s article referred to an idealistic scenario where, instead of remaining at home or being moved to an expensive care home, his mother and her friends plan to invest their savings in a ‘large country pile’ where they can all live together, sharing chores, the cost of bills, a private nurse and still have an asset to leave for their families when they die.
Creating a safe and secure environment with like-minded individuals is something we constantly strive to achieve at Audley. Although we won’t make you share the chores, you will have a beautiful main house within a few minutes walk, home to a restaurant, bar, health and wellbeing centre, where you can have dinner, get fit or just enjoy a coffee with friends. You will also have the option of tailored care packages as and when you need them. Most importantly, you will own your property, therefore securing you with an asset.
Retirement should be something you look forward to. It should be a about creating a new lifestyle which meets your current needs, with the support for the future. Mr Clarkson refers to this as a new concept, but at Audley, we’ve been doing it for years.
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