To receive a presentation from Nick Beard, Chairman of Age Concern Salisbury, followed by a discussion on the needs of older people in the Salisbury Community Area.
Minutes:
Nick Beard, Chairman of Age Concern Salisbury, was in attendance to give a presentation on the work of the organisation and the needs of older people in Salisbury.
Age Concern Salisbury was an independent charity serving the needs of older people in the Salisbury District, and was a part of the federation of Age Concern England. This nationwide charity was in the process of merging with Help the Aged to form a new charity called Age (UK).
Current challenges facing services for older
people included longer life expectancy and increased dispersal of
families, in addition to expectation of state support. Major concerns of elderly people in Salisbury were
as follows:
Nick set out the organisation’s mission statement, and listed some of the on-going projects, which included:
Salisbury, with an above average elderly population, would need to adapt to the changing environment of services to older people. These changes included increases in the number of commercial service providers, and the new government initiative of “personal budgets” whereby service users would have more control over how money was spent.
Nick explained that the changing environment would lead to Age Concern Salisbury taking on more of a “brokering“ role, to facilitate services and provide information and advice to users. Other ideas for future projects in Salisbury included increased use of technology and “e-contact”, in addition to a central “resource centre”, as a base for several local charities.
The Chairman thanked Nick for his presentation and invited those present to discuss issues for older people, each group being facilitated by a Councillor. The groups fed back the following responses to the questions asked:
1. What do you think are the issues for older people?
· Lack of social contact (e.g. with neighbours)
· Loneliness and isolation, leading to depression
· Accessibility to public transport (e.g. patchy/inflexible bus services, barriers at Railway Station restrict assistance when getting on/off trains)
· Insufficient benefit take-up
· Desire to maintain independence
2. What can the community do to help?
· Increased use of volunteers – need to identify potential volunteers (e.g. the active retired)
· Being aware of older people (i.e. someone should notice when they are not around)
· More inter-generational work – younger people helping with shopping/gardening/IT etc. This could be done through schools, or “adopt a granny” schemes
· Neighbourhood watch – possibly expand to cover a good neighbouring scheme
· Invite Age Concern to SCCAP
3. What should we be doing to help?
· Improve existing long-term care services
· Maintain funding levels to day centres
· Consider a scheme whereby older residents could trade in their bus passes for taxi journeys
· Single point of contact (e.g. phone number) for advice on services/support for older people
· “One stop” drop-in resource centres, providing advice, hot meals etc.
· Fall prevention – keep the older generation active to prevent falls, and related pressure on medical and care services
· Increased use of private sector (e.g. some taxi firms offering discounts to older people during certain hours)
Particular support was expressed for promoting contact between generations, by involving younger people in voluntary services. Several groups also supported Nick’s suggestion of a drop-in centre in Salisbury where people could access several charities and services in one place.
The Chairman thanked everyone for their views and explained that the feedback would be considered by Members and would be shared with Salisbury City Community Area Partnership (SCCAP) and with Salisbury City Council (SCC). Proposed actions arising out of the suggestions would be reported to the next meeting of the Area Board.