Marion Shoard | Writer : Broadcaster : Speaker

Older People's Issues

I offer advice, give talks and write articles about a wide range of issues which affect older people, from choosing appropriate housing to eating a nutritious diet, maximising income to finding good help in the home, navigating city centres if you have a disability to securing bespoke end-of-life care.

Elderly ActivitiesBut the experience of later life during the 21st century has in fact seen improvements on many fronts. One is in the ways in which people in care facilities such as care homes are treated. Another is the freedom to customise our relationships with other people. The growing fashion of 'living-apart-together' often suits older people who have formed a romantic attachment but wish to preserve their domestic and financial security. I explore LAT relationships in an article in the University of the Third Age magazine Third Age Matters in 2016. Other fields in which I have a particular interest include:

Just click on the headers below to expand and contract for each subject

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.