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We would all like to think that we’ll be well cared for when we get older.  At Angel Carers we only provide the very highest standards of care for our clients, but with the UK’s population steadily ageing year on year will this high level of care always be an option for the elderly in the future?  It is important that a lot of thought is put into how we as a nation are going to make sure that we are able to continue to offer excellent levels of care to our ageing population even when the demand is at its highest.

There are currently over 10 million people aged 65 or over in the UK and by 2050 this is expected have almost doubled to 19 million.  Unless more high quality care services are created between now and then we are going to find care agencies and health services inundated with people that need their help and completely unable to keep up with the demand that is anticipated.

Why is the population ageing?

The UK’s current ageing population has been caused by a few different factors.  If we look at the ages of the people in the current population we will see that there are a lot of people of a similar age who were all born during the baby boom of the 1960s and will all become elderly at the same time.  We are also seeing our population living longer on average than ever before.  A girl born in the early 1980s was expected on average to reach the age of 89, in comparison a girl born today is expected on average to see the grand old age of 92.

Challenges

With an imminent boom in elderly people on the horizon it is important that we plan and prepare now in order to give them the best quality of life later down the line.  Not only do we need more people to become care workers and more high quality domiciliary care agencies, we also need the health services to be prepared for an influx in patients and expenses.  Not only is the number of people over the age of 65 rising all the time but the number of very old people over the age of 85 is rising with it.  The department of health has estimated that a person aged over 85 is about three times more expensive to care for than a person aged 65 – 75.  65% of the Department for Work and Pensions’ public expenditure already goes to those over working age, but with a constantly ageing population this is going to need to be increased.

At Angel Carers we are passionate about helping older people to live a high quality of life into their later years.  We believe that it’s important that people are made aware of the UK’s ageing population so that the right preparation can be made to ensure that future generations can also live out their later years in comfort.

The Health Foundation have an article on our ageing population, so for further reading please check this link: Our ageing population – The Health Foundation