Age UK calls on care professionals to support reform petition

Age UK is calling on professionals from the care industry to support its Care in Crisis campaign.

The charity has launched the petition in the hope that it will force the government into making major and much needed reforms to the care system for elderly and disabled people.

In the wake of recent revelations around the standard of care in hospitals, the petition calls for all patients to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.

It also calls for a new financial structure that would prevent people having to sell their home or sacrifice their life savings in order to meet the cost of their basic care needs.

Age UK is asking for all care professionals to sign the petition and hopes to have in excess of 100,000 signatures by March 1st.

Reforming care has been discussed by successive governments but the issue has never been tackled. Age UK believes that, in times of budget cuts and an increasingly older generation, the current system is “confusing, unfair and unsustainable”.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director of Age UK, said that reform is one of the most important issues facing the older generation today and people working within the care industry will be well aware of this.

“Too many people rely on the care system on a daily basis for it to be kicked into the long grass and sidelined as too difficult or costly to fix,” she added.

“Our window of opportunity to influence government is now so we urgently need your support to ensure that the government listens to the concerns of not just older people and their families, but also the professionals directly working in the midst of this care crisis.”

However, Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes warned recently that reforms could take as long as 14 years to action even if the government is willing to listen to new proposals.

Posted by the Paying for Care editorial team