'Crisis' warning for elderly health care

Another 350 people aged over 85 are expected to have the illness by 2015 - up 36 per cent from 975 sufferers in 2005 to 1,325, and up to 1,725 by 2025.

York's deputy chief officer for Age Concern, James Player, warned of a "real crisis" looming for services for older people.

"We are seeing the start of that with older people struggling harder to get help they need. One in five people in their 80s has dementia.

"With people living longer, there's going to be much more need for older people to receive support.

"To keep people safely and comfortably at home will require added investment for both health services and community care services."

City of York Council's social services chief, Coun Sue Galloway, is proposing a £100,000 growth bid for a new eight-bed unit at York's Windsor House for elderly dementia sufferers.

York has 99 specialist residential care beds for dementia sufferers who need permanent registered care, including 27 at Morrell House, the council's first dedicated residential care facility for older people with mental health problems.

Coun Galloway said: "We already have a waiting list for Morrell House. We can fill that three times over. In the next ten years we forecast a 36 per cent rise in numbers of people suffering from dementia in York. It is important we plan now."

The council's head of adult social services, Keith Martin, said the aim in York was to enable people to remain at home as long as possible and to support relatives and unpaid carers through a range of community, council and NHS services.

"We know more needs to be done to meet increased demand," he said.

"There is already a demand for more care homes providing specialist help.

"We recognise there is insufficient provision of registered care beds in York for people with dementia and the development of the Windsor House beds goes alongside other new developments in the independent sector."

Coun Galloway said the Government had "short changed" the council on the issue.

"The proposed grant is inadequate to sustain existing services, let alone cater for increasing numbers of people needing social services support. We are allocating an increase of more than £400,000 extra in our budget to replace grant taken away by central government and to address the rising costs of residential and home care services."

A contingency sum of nearly £600,000 has been earmarked to address emerging issues including increasing demand, homecare and residential nursing fees.

York council continues to support people with "moderate" or higher level needs. Many councils have withdrawn help in all but "critical" cases.

The proposed social services budget goes before the council's executive on February 17.

Case study one

MRS X is 86 years old. She has lived in York all her life, which is where her family and friends still live.

She is currently on the waiting list for a bed in a local authority elderly person's home.

When Mrs X needed to move to a care home there were no locally available places that could meet her mental health needs so she moved to an alternative home 40 miles away.

Her daughter works during the week and visits Mrs X as often as possible at weekends, but as she cannot drive she is reliant on others to take her and can only visit about once or twice a month.

Mrs X suffers from severe dementia and struggles now to recognise her daughter.

If she was able to move to York she would see more of people she recognises and the effects of her dementia would be less apparent.

Case study two

IRENE Maxwell enjoyed her independence well into her 80s from her own home within shouting distance of her daughter.

But, as with many people of her age, she started to suffer from dementia and her family feared for her safety as the illness progressed.

Now 96, Mrs Maxwell has been a resident of Morrell House for more than two years.

Morrell House is a dedicated residential care facility for older people with mental health problems in York.

Her daughter, Wendy Webster, of Ikin Way, Huntington, welcomed news of the proposed new eight-bed unit at Windsor House, saying some elderly people with dementia can become "a danger to themselves".

"Care in the community works for some people but depends on the individual," she said. "I appreciate the finance is a major problem, but I feel uneasy about trying to keep too many people in their own homes unless they have family popping in four to five times a day or living on the doorstep. It is a difficult situation because people are living longer."

She commended the care provided at Morrell House as "excellent".

"You can't fault it at all. The staff are very dedicated and look after my mother so well. You read such horror stories about some places but the residents at Morrell House are treated really well."

She said her mother started to suffer from dementia in her mid-80s after a series of operations including two hip replacements.

"It got to the stage where she didn't know what was happening all the time.

"I was frightened she was going to fall downstairs. She needed 24-hour care."

Case study three

MR Y is 83 and lives alone. He has family who keep in touch but cannot visit often.

Over the last 18 months, due to increasing dementia, Mr Y has had a home care support package with regular visits during the week from the council in-house service. Mr Y has become increasingly disoriented over the last six months and has been on the waiting list for admission to a specialist home for people with dementia.

During that period he has been receiving increased support at home.

More recently Mr Y has become very anxious and has been wandering at night, unaware of his whereabouts.

As a result he is at risk. Consequently he will shortly be moving into a care home but it would have been much better for Mr Y if he could have moved sooner.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, January 27, 2006