“Pots and Kettles”

Posted on August 28, 2015 by john graham

It is not often that I read the Financial Times, nor do I expect the pink pages to express concerns about older people, but the 20th August edition had two headlines that attracted my interest:-

“Square Mile fears reputation damage as fraudsters use prestigious addresses”

This was a front page headline about the increasing number of scams aimed at conning, mainly older people, into fake investment schemes in things like diamonds, wine and overseas land.  They use City of London addresses to give credibility to their enticements.  Rich returns are promised to unwary investors.

Pensioners seeking to make better returns on their pension pots were estimated to have lost at least £1.7 billion in 2014.

Of course there would not be so much pressure to take such risks with their money if there were better returns on savings.  Also how much of a reputation for trust does the city still have with pensioners after the banking scandals, mis-selling huge bonus payments and excessive salaries in the financial sector in recent years?

The irony of this situation is lost on the sharp suited millionaires driving around in their flash cars.  Hidden behind the mirror glass offices of the City of London.  Robbers no longer wear balaclavas and carry swag bags over their shoulders.  Now they are often indistinguishable from the city businessmen.

Continued in next post………………….

 

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“Cloud Surfing – Obama’s old age”

Posted on August 23, 2015 by john graham

So far I have only found a few interesting sites about remarkable older people, although there are a lot of older bloggers, mainly in America who have interesting stories to tell.  It has taken hours of relatively aimless surfing to find them.  (You can read about my travels by clicking on “Cloud Surfing” in the TAG CLOUD).

At last my cloud surfing adventure finally seems to have led me to something more substantial in terms of social policy.

Today I surfed all the way across the Atlantic and washed up at a conference at the White House.  It took a bit of time surfing that far so I arrived late :-).  It actually took place on 13th July.

The American Conference on Ageing has taken place every 10 years since 1961.  On arrival my first problem was my Google door key had hundreds of options but no obvious directions.  So, I went down lots of blind alleys for a while, which seems to be the way with cloud surfing.

Eventually I found a video podcast of President Obama making his introductory speech.   President Obama at the 2015 Conference on Ageing (Click here if you have 20 minutes to spare).

President Obama made a very polished speech, with lots of self congratulations about the funding of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  Evidently America truly is a land of milk and honey.  Though I don’t suppose that President Obama’s old age will be dependent on Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security

He did then mention that 10,000 Americans reach 65 every day.

Then he pointed out:

  • Medicare and Medicaid are under demographic pressure and in deficit, so there is a need to “slow the growth of health care costs”.  Sounds like code for cuts for the 9 million people on Medicaid.
  • Americans are not saving enough for retirement and many have to live only on social security.
  • They have a problem with high fees and biased advice for financial products for the elderly.
  • 1/3 of Americans do not have a workplace pension.
  • Quality and safety in nursing homes is a big issue.
  • They are going to train more prosecutors to combat elder abuse.
  • Half of all Americans are expected to experience severe financial needs.

This rather takes the shine off President Obama’s message but sounds very similar to the situation in the UK!

It certainly was a polished politician’s speech but it didn’t sound as though President Obama’s promises would amount to very much action.

 

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“Cloud Surfing – Millie Garfield”

Posted on August 16, 2015 by john graham

Continuing to surf around in my quest for interesting blogs by older people, I eventually found a piece of treasure.

A blog by Millie Garfield – a 91-year-old young lady who lives in Boston, USA.

Millie has been blogging since 2003, so must have been one of the first older bloggers.  What caught my eye was her latest blog about a manicure she had – not a natural thing to grab my attention except the picture of Millie showed her looking years younger than her age and her new varnish was BLUE.

Cloud surfing Millie

A great example of someone who is younger than their age.

Looking back through the blog, I find Millie has in the past made YouTube videos on the difficulties of packaging for older people, which is a theme I have often blogged about (click on “Packaging” in the TAG CLOUD).

Millie, you’re a star and I am glad I found you.  You can see her if you click on the following link:

“My Mom’s Blog” by thoroughly Modern Millie.

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“Cloud Surfing 2”

Posted on August 9, 2015 by john graham

I am continuing on my summer surfing holiday exploring the internet for interesting and positive sites about older people.

Like the early explorers searching for “the new world”, you’re not sure where you are going, nor exactly what you are looking for.  Inevitably there are lots of blind alleys which turn into dead ends.  It can be very frustrating and it is not always easy to re-trace your steps, even with your computer’s history leaving your tracks behind you.  Hours can go by, 100’s of web pages written and read and you still don’t find anything interesting.

Almost all internet searches pull you towards America and somewhere on my travels I found a reference to a statement by the American Association of Retired Persons which claimed that only 3% of all bloggers are elderly.

So I find myself like Christopher Columbus sailing through unchartered waters, absolutely sure that there are new things to discover ahead of me.  So far though, my cloud surfing has revealed no new worlds.  I will redouble my efforts, hang off the highest masts with my telescope and look for “land ahoy”.

Cloud surfing 2A

Tomorrow is another day!

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“Cloud Surfing 1”

Posted on August 2, 2015 by john graham

This follows on from my last blog where I am looking for positive images of older people.  If you start off by surfing the net and type in “Old People” into Google, what you tend to find is adverts for the largest national old peoples’ organisations, old peoples’ health stories and Government organisations for older people.  Valuable as they are, these sites are not exactly inspiring.

As an alternative, I follow a number of subjects on a “Flipboard” site and after searching through a number of magazines, I eventually found a reference to a number of sites of interest to older people.  The one that struck my attention was “Road Scholar”.  This is an American travel site which specialises in educational tours.  It’s a not for profit organisation with headquarters in Boston and is primarily geared to educational travel tours for older adults.

Cloud surfing 2

I’m not sure if their holidays include cloud surfing or are quite as adventurous as the 100’s of people that went abseiling, climbing, canoeing and horse riding with the ExtraCare Charitable Trust in Devon, but they certainly go to some exciting places around the world.

Last year they offered 4,600 trips throughout North America and around the world and offered services to over 100,000 people.

I think this is a great example of an organisation that has built itself into a positive image of ageing.  It’s offering an opportunity for individuals to travel in a safe and organised environment and fulfil ambitions that they may not have the confidence to complete on their own.

To find out more, click on the following link:-

Road Scholar

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“Cloud Surfing”

Posted on July 26, 2015 by john graham

In the five years that I have been writing this blog, I have routinely scanned the news media and the internet for information about ageing and older people issues.  There is a torrent of information out there, but when you specifically add the rider that it must be about old people, the elderly or seniors, what you get back is overwhelming concerned with just a few central themes which are common to all countries:-

Demographic Time Bomb:-

The rising tide of older people is a worldwide phenomenon as we all live longer.

Ill Health:-

The spiralling cost of healthcare as a consequence of greater longevity and improved medical techniques.

Inadequate Finances:-

Insufficient funds set aside by the state and individuals to cover the cost of later life, particularly health care

Inadequate Care Provision:-

Both in the public and private sectors and by many absent relatives.

The responses to this situation on a national and global scale are at best, strategically very weak and at worst, border on panic measures.  National strategies, in the main, seem to be defensive, for instance, postponing retirement age or denying some treatments/drugs to older people.  The panic measures include legalising assisted suicide.

This all makes for a very gloomy outlook and sure enough this is reflected in the information and news media.  The residual image is of older people as a burden on society.

GrumbleSmiles is about turning around that perception into something much more positive and I am sure that there are many people and organisations out there trying to do the same thing.  It’s just not that obvious from the exposure they get in a media that focuses more easily on negative things.

Cloud surfing 1

Over the next month I am going to turn my attention to trying to find websites that present positive images of ageing.  I know from past experience of the internet that this will not be easy.  There’s plenty of information out there about medical conditions and there is a huge amount of research into the “problem of ageing”.  There’s also lots of stereo typical images of old people falling over or being made fun of.

I intend to find things that are much more positive and I will publish them as a succession of follow up blogs to this post.

 

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“Smile Post”

Posted on July 19, 2015 by john graham

It was 2011 when I first started grumbling about the postal service.  I wrote lots of blogs about it in 2011 and 2012.  You can see them by clicking on “GrumbleSmiles Post” in the TAG CLOUD.

I commented on a politician’s promise by Caroline Spelman MP, who was then Environment Secretary, to put an end to unwanted junk mail by introducing a “door to door” preference service in April 2012.  Surprise, surprise – it never happened!

Now 4 years later the scheme has been quietly abandoned.  And junk mail has increased from 1.7 billion letters delivered annually 5 years ago to 3.2 billion items today.

All these extra deliveries add to the profitability of the postal service, but obviously this has not influenced the Government and of course, in no way is linked to the Government’s intention to sell off Royal Mail in the near future.

So, since we are not going to stop this unwanted tide of junk mail, let’s celebrate it.

Use e-mail to sign up for more junk mail, that way you will get regular visits from your friendly postie.  Then, think creatively about how to use all that extra paper :-

  • Give it to a friend or neighbour who actually wants to know about free offers, energy-saving schemes, equity release, garden centre sales, cheap holidays, Chinese take-aways, fashion catalogues, double glazing —- and all the other unsolicited post that you get.
  • Use piles of it to prop-up wobbly table legs
  • Burn it to keep warm in winter when the Government takes away your heating allowance – always providing you still have a chimney 🙂
  • Stuff it in a duvet cover and sleep under it like a tramp on a park bench
  • Put it in the bottom of your runner bean trench – always providing you still have a garden
  • There must be many more ideas we can think of (leaving aside the obvious lavatorial use)
  • If all else fails, reply to all the junk mail then you will get more mail, more phone calls and more visits!

The moral of this story is  —-  make a friend of your postie and don’t complain about junk mail, make a virtue of all the visits 🙂

junk-mail

 

 

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“Pelican Crossings are too fast for the elderly”

Posted on July 12, 2015 by john graham

The Government will shortly be introducing athletics training for old people in the run-up to the next Olympic Games.  It is not that they expect many people to compete in Rio de Janeiro  in 2016 – the Department of Transport just wants old people to cross the road faster!

A study by Age UK and the International Longevity Centre, found that many older people walk at less than one metre per second.   However, the Department of Transport assumes that the little green man on pelican crossings walks at 1.2 metres per second. OOPS!!

This road crossing standard was set in 1950 when there was slower traffic and faster old people around.  Now it appears that old people are not just blocking NHS beds, they are clogging up the road system as well.

The Prime Minister has announced that this situation can’t continue and a compulsory national “Speed Up At 60” training programme will be launched in an effort to keep the traffic moving.  In future all older people over 60 will be subjected to a walking test every year and those that don’t pass will be banned from crossing roads.  The Government thinks this will significantly reduce the number of accidents and improve congestion in our cities.  It is also anticipated that the increased exercise will reduce hospital admissions.  This would seem to be a win, win situation for everyone, especially the little green man.

pelican (2)

Posted in SMILES | 3 Comments

“Same Old, Same Old – Death’s Door”

Posted on July 5, 2015 by john graham

Before I had even concluded my last blog on the recurring headlines about assisted suicide, a host of new headlines on the same subject appear:-

“Dying without dignity” – Daily Mail – 20th May 2015

“The dam is about to burst on the right to die” – The Times – 28th May 2015

As the population of older people increases and ill-health and frailty overwhelms the NHS and Social Services, clearly this issue won’t go away.

The first headline covers a report by the Parliamentary Health Ombudsman on the appalling end of life care in the NHS.  This follows the extended discussion about the use of the “Liverpool Pathway” which appears to have changed very little for the better.  Obviously the NHS does not handle death very well, hence the wish of most people to die at home.

The second headline was prompted by yet another Dignitas Death in Switzerland. A thoughtful review by Times journalist, David Aronovitch, of the slow but inexorable progress of Lord Falconer’s assisted dying bill.

These two issues are closely and uncomfortably related.  The NHS’s inability to cope with overwhelming numbers of older people who may have complex health needs but are NOT terminally ill.  Coupled with politicians oversimplifying and misunderstanding the issues of later life and muddying the waters of morality and expediency.

This is one subject where I can’t see how you can turn a “Grumble” about assisted suicide into a “Smile”.

When you link these two issues together you have a fatal cocktail which will hasten many more older people who have been constantly reminded they are “old, past-it and useless”, to take the final step through :-

ManSmilew-BIGboard Cropped 171

Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY | Tagged , | 2 Comments

“Same Old, Same Old – Hastened Departure”

Posted on June 28, 2015 by john graham

This is another blog about recurring headlines that are ageist and continue to build the image of old people as a burden on society.  It is on the subject of assisted suicide which rather ominously I have written about 13 times in the last few years.  (See my earlier posts by clicking on Assisted Suicide in the TAG CLOUD).

The latest such headline was front page in the Daily Mail – 27th April 2015.

“Over 75? sign here if you’re ready for death”.

It was commenting on new NHS guidance to GP’s suggesting they draw up end-of-life plans for over 75’s and then asking them in advance of any life threatening illness if they want a “do not resuscitate” notice above their heads.

It dovetails neatly into a careless NHS that denies treatments to older patients.  It also simplifies the path to take us a step closer to assisted suicide with no recriminations.

A “Doctor Harold Shipman” recipe for later life care.

This brutal message to those over 75 is entirely inconsistent with the compassionate approach to end-of-life care we would all hope to receive.

We should be celebrating longevity, not bemoaning the additional burden it places on society.  GPs need to give advice to older people on living better lives, not dying better deaths.

ManSmilew-BIGboard Cropped 172

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged , | 2 Comments