Welfare Reform on the Web (February 2005): Care of the Elderly - UK

HOME WITH HIGH DEATH RATE WAS CHECKED 17 TIMES

D. Taylor and H.Muir

The Guardian, Jan. 20th 2005, p.2

Health officials conducted 17 inspections of a former nursing home under scrutiny following the deaths of 16 elderly residents. The multiple inspections of the Maypole Nursing Home were carried out by the former Birmingham Health Authority over a period of 12-14 years, but the high death rate did not come to light until 2003, when the National Care Standards Commission took over responsibility for inspections. Many of the death at the Maypole were not referred to the coroner. There is no systematic procedure for auditing the death rate in nursing homes. The current system relies on self-reporting.

WHAT MAKES OLDER PEOPLE CHOOSE RESIDENTIAL CARE, AND ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES?

P. Stilwell and A. Kerslake

Housing, Care and Support, vol.7, Dec. 2004, p.4-8

Article reports the results of an interview survey of 36 older people recently admitted to care homes which aimed the estimate how many might have been able to use Extra Care Housing instead. It is estimated that two thirds of the older people interviewed could have benefited from Extra Care provision, either currently or at the time of an earlier move.

WORKING AND CARING OVER THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN FOUR-GENERATION FAMILIES

J. Brannen, P. Moss and A. Mooney

Basingstoke, Hants: Economic & Social Research Council, 2004

Increased longevity and better health care are changing the nature of family life. In the context of changes in the world of work, increased divorce and a declining welfare state, multi-generation or 'beanpole families' are a potential resource for family support. Focusing on four-generation families and the two central careers of the life course - employment and care - this book explores this question. It maps in detail from 1910 to the late 1990s the lives and men and women as great-grandparents, grandparents and parents.