Raw deal for the old and infirm?

OLDER people don't generally make much of a fuss about things. For many, complaining goes against the grain.

So when they do speak out, they probably have good cause.

For Barbara Carder-Geddes, it was the way she was turned down for a disabled parking badge by City of York Council.

The 75-year-old from Dringhouses has been left with one lung after being treated for lung cancer. She gets breathless easily, especially when climbing stairs or walking even short distances.

Her GP thought she may be eligible for a disabled badge, so she could park closer to shops and didn't have to struggle so far carrying heavy shopping bags.

She duly filled in an application form and posted it off - only to be told by the city council that she didn't meet the criteria. She wrote again, explaining her breathing problems - and was refused again, this time with no right of appeal.

It wasn't so much the fact she was turned down that incensed her, however, as the way it was done.

"I would be perfectly willing to go for an assessment and accept whatever conclusion they came to," she says, her breath coming in wheezing gasps. "But nobody has seen me, nobody has even spoken to me. Do you think that someone sitting in an office is qualified to make a decision of the sort that they have with me?"

It's this kind of apparently uncaring, faceless bureaucracy that can put vulnerable elderly people off turning to the authorities for help. The city council can plead - as it has done - that the criteria which govern whether someone is eligible for a disabled parking badge are set by central Government, not local authorities.

That, however, is little comfort for Mrs Carder-Geddes: especially when she sees perfectly healthy people using their grandmother's badge to park in a disabled bay at the supermarket and dash into the store, while she has to park further away.

A number of stories in the Evening Press recently have highlighted the often bewildering plight that elderly people struggling to cope in their own homes can find themselves in.

There was the case of Jenny Tatton, the disabled 77-year-old pensioner who lives alone in a village south of York. She needs a motorised scooter to get around, and relies on her telephone to keep in contact with the world. Understandably, she felt frightened and cut off when storms last month tore down the phone lines - and after three weeks, BT engineers had still not repaired them. "What if I was ill at night and couldn't get hold of my children?" she told the Evening Press.

Then there was retired teacher Mrs Winefride Melody. The 67-year-old from Selby spent more than six months in hospital recovering from cerebral vasculitis, a condition which affected her in a similar way to a stroke.

She received excellent care in York hospital, she says, and had been steadily regaining her ability to be independent, learning to walk, eat, wash and even take showers herself.

Since returning to her home in Selby, however, she says she feels she has "gone back about three months".

Because of her condition she needs a special chair to help her lift her legs over the side of the bath and support her while she showers - which she says she was told North Yorkshire County Council could not supply until April.

Until then, she says, she is having to wash in the sink.

What she would really like to do is rip out her bath altogether and put in a wide shower she could get into in a wheelchair.

It would probably cost about £300, she reckons - a lot of money on her combined teacher's and state pension of about £800-£900 a month. But she doesn't see any prospect of the county council paying.

"I may end up having to pay for it myself," she says. "Although I don't see why after a lifetime of going to work and paying superannuation taxes and National Insurance."

There are a whole range of services and benefits which should in theory be available to help older people, provided by everyone from local authorities to the health service, national Government and the voluntary sector.

Sheila Mackenzie, intermediate care co-ordinator for the Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), points out that a full risk assessment of Mrs Melody's home was carried out before she was allowed home to make sure she would be safe there, and her needs were being continually reviewed. A spokesman for the county council added a full report on Mrs Melody's needs would be considered by the "appropriate organisations" in due course.

The problem is that the help which can be given in such situations can be limited - by tight budgets, and sometimes by bureaucratic restrictions such as those on the eligibility criteria for disabled badges.

On top of that, many elderly people are simply not coming forward to ask for the help or the benefits to which they are entitled - either because they are too proud or too wary of getting involved with social services, or simply because they don't realise they may be entitled to help.

It was only when she received a visit from a member of the Selby and York PCT's intermediate care team, for example, that she realised she may be able to qualify for disability living allowance, Mrs Melody says. "Before that, I didn't know anything about it."

It's a common problem, according to Linda Tester of Older Citizens Advocacy York. Her organisation sees many older people who would benefit from existing services but who don't come forward to seek help. Some are put off by the thought of bureaucracy and form-filling, others because they are frightened of losing their independence - and some simply don't realise they may qualify for help.

"The difficulty is that local authorities understandably do not go looking for older or vulnerable people," she says. "They cannot just knock on somebody's doorstep and say 'we gather you're vulnerable, what can we do about it?'"

Coun Sue Galloway, the executive member for social services on City of York Council - which last year spent more than £32 million providing services for older and disabled people - admits it is hard to gauge exactly how many older people who may be entitled to help are not getting it.

"But one of the things we do know is that there are something like 1,700 people in York who are not claiming pension credit (that they may be entitled to)," she says.

Quite how local authorities would cope if everybody who was entitled to help came forward to claim it is unclear. "It would be difficult to say, because we would not know until they had been assessed what they all qualified for," says Sue Galloway. The council does have fixed budgets for each department, however, a spokesperson pointed out - and if one department overspent, that money would have to come from another department or council reserves.

Sally Hutchinson, chief officer of Age Concern York, believes there is a gap in provision for older people struggling to cope in their own homes - a gap caused by the fact there isn't enough money to go around.

Sadly, often the demands of trying to cope with a changing world - with closing post offices, new ways of managing money, and things younger people find straightforward, such as computers - can all be too much, she says. Age Concern often ends up helping older people move into residential care simply because they don't want the worry of running a home any more.

"The world is too big, and too cold and too complicated for them," she says. "People want to remain in their own homes, yes, but not as a prisoner. There are people who have remained in their own homes too long."

What help is available?

There are a whole range of services available to help older people. Some are provided by local authority social services; some by the health service or primary care trust; others by local voluntary groups. They include meals on wheels, home help, day care, respite care for carers, and special assistance for those who are ill or who are about to leave hospital. Depending on circumstances, you may have to pay for some of these.

In addition, there are various benefits or allowances that elderly people may be able to claim, again depending on circumstances. They include help with health costs and pension credits.

Once an elderly person has been put in contact with social services, they will carry out a full assessment, before drawing up a 'package' of care tailored to that person's needs.

Who should you contact?

If you are finding it difficult to cope - or are worried about an elderly relative or neighbour - you can contact the social services department of your local council. In York, social services can be reached by calling the main council switchboard on 01904 613161.

If you would rather not contact social services direct, Age Concern (01904 621020) and Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY, on 01904 676200) can both provide information in confidence about what benefits or services may be available.

If you are worried about being assessed by social services, OCAY can help you with filling in forms, and even attend an assessment meeting with you.

Updated: 09:11 Thursday, February 10, 2005