Older People's Issues
I have written two handbooks (for people with large hands - they run to over 600 and over 1000 pages!), which offer information and guidance to anything from how to make the most of the social care system and your rights under the NHS to how to address housing choices in later life and how those to whom you grant power of attorney should exercise their powers.
Since 2020, I have been deeply interested in the ways in which the system for social care could be reformed and also in other ways in which the lives of older people could be significantly improved, not least by breaking down barriers with which many have to contend in the physical and the digital worlds. I am also interested in the way in which older people are depicted in the media and chair a regular online discussion about the depiction of the lives of older people by the arts, especially film.
Here are some of the fields in which I have a particular interest:
Just click on the headers below to expand and contract for each subject
Ageism pervades countless aspects of life in Britain today, despite the strictures of the Equality Act, 2010. I explored ageism in a talk at the Lowdham Book Festival in 2005. You can read this here: Government accused of Ageism 
One aspect of ageism in the health service is the massive reduction in the number of beds for elderly people with long-term disabling conditions: the number was cut by two-thirds during the last quarter of the 20th century. After a battle, I managed to secure one of these NHS Continuing Care beds for my mother. However, the Continuing Care system is not ideal, and when in 2005 the House of Commons Health Select Committee conducted an inquiry into NHS Continuing Care, I submitted evidence, which you can read here: Inquiry into NHS Continuing Care
My interest in access to the countryside sprang from recognition of the enormous amount of land in Britain on which people may not legally set foot even though they would do no conceivable damage. For people with mobility problems (as a result of anything from osteoarthritis to lung disease), exclusion takes on a huge additional dimension. Large numbers of these people are shut out of glorious countryside simply for the want of basic features like seats, gates (instead of stiles) and paths with a smooth surface. Lack of basic infrastructure to facilitate walking is certainly not confined to the countryside: in towns too perfectly straightforward steps could transform the lives of many people, as I explain in this article from Woman's World - Elderly Mobility - Way to Go
Part Eight, Out and About, of my book How to Handle Later Life examines how to overcome problems in moving around town and country if you have a mobility impairment and also how to make the best use of public transport, whether you find walking difficult or simply wish to enjoy allowing someone else to drive you around.
In my book How to Handle Later Life I aim to give people the knowledge to ensure that they know what palliative care they should be asking for, if it is not offered. My publisher, Amaranth Books, has posted up the 41-page part of that book entitled The End of Life on its website.
I do not consider the measures in Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (Assisted Dying) Bill 2025 would adequately protect vulnerable people not least self-funding older people living in care homes from coercion to end their lives prematurely. I explored this concern as well as operational challenges in the provision of assisted suicide in care homes and hospices in evidence to MPs considering the Bill and in this article (see pages 8-12).
I first became involved in the world of dementia when my other developed the condition, a story which I recounted in an the following article published in The Sunday Telegraph: Dementia - The Day I Abducted My Mother
Since then, I have had much experience of the condition, mainly through visiting people with dementia in care homes but also seeking to support a small number of individuals with dementia in their own homes. I often give talks about dementia, such as this one which I gave to Carers Support in 2005: Dementia - Our Cinderella Disease
I have been a member of the Alzheimer's Society since my mother first developed dementia in the late 1990s. After involvement in the Sutton branch, London Area Forum and National Advisory Council, I now sit on the Society's Quality Research in Dementia forum, which evaluates applications for funding for research projects into both the scientific and care aspects of dementia.
Many people provide unpaid care to disabled or frail relatives and friends which the state would have to provide were it not for their efforts. Yet carers often receive very little by way of help and are often unaware of their entitlements. I often give talks to carers groups, offering practical advice and discussing issues that affect them, such as my talk in Northumberland in 2005: New Charter for Home Carers
Also see faith groups below.
All sorts of activities can appeal in later life. Activity is an especially important aspect of care home provision.
Art for Disabled and Elderly People
Creative art for disabled and elderly people (wherever they are living) is one activity which specially interests me; here is an article I have written about a national movement to enable physically disabled people to engage in creative artwork called Conquest Art. Elderly Activities - Art for people with disabilities
Keeping a Pet
Choosing a pet when we are getting old involves special considerations, which I explore here: Elderly Activities - Keeping a Pet
I explore the physical and mental benefits of activities from swimming to volunteering in my book How to Handle Later Life.
Older people are often the mainstay of faith groups, which in turn could provide for an enormous wellspring of support. Yet sometimes faith groups ignore older people's special needs, whether physical, psychological or spiritual. I report on a conference on ways in which churches could better respond to the opportunities and to the needs of older people in an article published in The Tablet here.
I suggest ways in which churches could respond to the needs of unpaid family carers in an article from the Church of England Newspaper here.
I offer guidance to church leaders about ways in which they can best support older people in an article published in Reform Magazine (the magazine of the United Reformed Church) here.
Since 2019 I have been a member of the executive committee of the voluntary group Christians on Ageing. You can read the report of our conference held in Sheffield in 2019 which I helped organise here and details of regular video discussions we have been holding during 2020 called Conference Call here.
I explore concerns about visiting people in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in this article entitled 'Care homes: how we could make amends' .
I proposed a new way in which volunteers in faith groups could support older people, through acting as their representative should they come to lose mental capacity, in an article entitled published in the Autumn 2020 edition of the journal of Christians on Ageing, plus. You can read my article here.
I proposed ways in which faith groups could support self-isolating older people and those living in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in an article published in The Church of England Newspaper on 25 September 2020, which you can read here.
In an article published by Christians on Ageing's magazine, plus, in November 2020 I urged that churches give special support during the lockdowns to three groups: family carers isolated at home with those for whom they are caring; people excluded from the digital world; and care home residents whom nobody is seeking to visit.
In an article published in Christians on Ageing's magazine, plus, in April 2021, I explored ways in which the internet could enable churches to build back better, including widening the range of activities they offer at friendship clubs and enabling people who were prevented from attending church in person pre-Covid to enjoy greater contact with their church community after the lockdown restrictions have eased.
My mother spent short periods in three care homes in the late 1990s and the treatment of people in these establishments has been an enduring interest of mine ever since. You can read the story of my personal experience of the care field here . A hundred pages of my Survival Guide to Later Life deal with choosing and living in a care home, and I have reported on the selection of care homes and how to remain happy in them in the annual publication Care Select - Choosing a Care Home . My book How to Handle Later Life refers to many aspects of the world of care homes, offering guidance on anything from how to secure good healthcare while living in a home to how to prevent social services or your attorneys from moving you into one home against your will.
I have been urging that people living in care homes should be a given a right of access to the outdoors, as for instance, in this article entitled ‘The Great Outdoors’ see also Comment.
I explore concerns about visiting people in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in this article entitled 'Care homes: how we could make amends' .
I was a trustee for several years of the voluntary group the Relatives and Residents Association, which seeks to help older and disabled people living in care homes and their families. The quality of life of people living in care homes is a central concern of Christians on Ageing, of whose executive committee I have been a member since 2019.
Books
I believe that many of the problems of old age can be avoided if people plan ahead and become better informed about their rights as well as the range of help available to them. My book How to Handle Later Life aims to do this. After an introduction explaining the changes to the body as we age and the special nutritional, exercise and psychological needs of later life, it explores a range of topics in fields such as housing choices, maximising income in later life, obtaining practical help in the home and securing good care in hospital. You can see the introduction and sample chapters here. Reviews have all been highly complimentary, singly out the sections on staying in hospital and dementia for special praise.
My A Survival Guide to Later Life, published in 2004, covers these subjects but is shorter and is organised slightly differently, with separate, substantial sections on carers and care homes.
