Will the Baby Boomers choose to live in communes?
Posted: January 17th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Grandparents, Retirement | 3 Comments »
As people live longer, pension pots shrink and more families find themselves caring not only for their own children but also parents and grandparents, some sort of communal living seems inevitable for all of us.
This represents a huge sea change in how we live in the UK. For people born after the Second World War, the nuclear family was often the norm. People moved out of the parental home as soon as they could and many moved away from their home town. The ubiquitous “modern executive detached” became the home of choice for the aspirant middle classes. People expected older relatives to move to sheltered housing or care homes when they became frail rather than move in with them. Children were often sent to nurseries or childminders. In other words, there was a certain autonomy between the generations.
But this is changing. As the populations ages at the same time as public finances are shot, more and more people are finding themselves responsible for caring for one or more sets of parents and grandparents who often live some distance away.
At the other end of the scale, many of today’s young adults are being supported by their parents whether by being helped out with a house deposit or school or university fees or even by providing childcare allowing them to work.
Finances are being squeezed every which way. Add to this, concerns about job security, pensions coming up short, high student debt and house prices outstripping the incomes of only the most affluent and the result is that families are under severe pressure.
So, is the answer to live together and share the burdens? Whilst there is a certain economic sense to clubbing together, there are many families to whom such an arrangement will be an anathema. Many will be reluctant to give up their own homes and hard won independence in this way. Many simply don’t get on well enough. Much of our current housing stock is not conducive to intergenerational living. Many modern homes are too small, cramped and inflexible. Larger homes are very expensive and may be unaffordable unless all the family members have money to put in the pot.
Another possibility is that people join together to buy a large house and live together as mutually supportive friends. This is a common aspiration amongst my contemporaries. This has the attraction of living with people you ostensibly like, although you would need to choose carefully. The friends with whom you partied in your 20s or shared school runs in your 30s are not necessarily the people to share your later years with. Whilst you might all move in with good intentions, what happens if you fall out or one person’s care needs or circumstances change dramatically? Do you boot them out or all club together to care for them?
Another alternative is the supportive community model, The Big Society idea which is all the rage in Whitehall at the moment (although no one yet has come up with a decent definition of what it means). Here communities, ie your street, your town become much more mutually supportive. For instance, people get together to support an elderly neighbour with shopping, cooking and cleaning. But this sort of activity would have to be heavily organised in order to be effective and it also relies on huge amounts of goodwill and people in the locality having sufficient spare time to volunteer .
Perhaps we should all move to retirement villages where the organisational structures are already in place? In the UK we have been slow to embrace this concept and it is certainly an unpopular proposition amongst my friends, based on maybe outdated notions of “Old People’s Homes”.
Ultimately we will all need to find an arrangement which suits our own families. But I cannot help but think that the days of the nuclear family are numbered. Community, if not the extended family, has to be the way forward.
What do you think? Do you agree?
The options for managing your own homecare budget
Posted: January 14th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Health | Comments OffThis blog post first appeared in Kirkwood Care’s blog. Kirkwood Care are a homecare provider.
By Reece Howe of Kirkwood Care, on January 14th, 2011
Taking control of your Individual Budget for home care can be extremely liberating, but it needs to be planned and handled well for you to be able to get the most out of it and avoid potential pitfalls.
People who receive home care that the local council has agreed to fund often find they are signed up to receive care from Block Care Providers – typically the care providers who put in the winning (read: lower) bids when the council put the care provision bid out to tender. The lowest bid tends not to pay for the most competent or most caring home carers, so potential problems such as missed care visits, rapid staff turnover, lack of training, care visits not happening at preferred times and general lack of professionalism, tend to come up sooner rather than later, and are often dealt with badly by local management.
But all is not lost! Under the name “Direct Payments” or “Self Directed Support”, many people have managed to take the home care budget they were allocated by the council and spend it on what they want, when they want, and with the home care provider they want, as long as it goes towards meeting their care needs. Expenditure can be on equipment and technologies as well as home care services. And home care services can be relatives (with restrictions), neighbours, direct employees or home care businesses.
Each of these has its risks and rewards. I’ll go though the three below.
Paying a friend or relative
Someone who is familiar to you can be a safe bet in terms of reliability and personal safety. In this case it’s necessary to ensure that the friend or relative is demonstrably providing the home care assistance, as the council will expect to see evidence that your needs are being met. Some questions to consider before taking someone you know on as your main carer are:
- Will this detrimentally change the relationship we have?
- Do they have the knowledge and expertise to do what I need? Will they be able to cope if my situation changes?
- Are they reliable, or do they have other commitments that may get in the way?
- What will happen when they’re on holiday, or ill?
Directly hiring your own home carer
It can be very rewarding to have your own personal carer who either lives with you or visits whenever you need them to. You can be sure that the carer is the same and gets to know you over time. Some questions to consider before hiring someone directly as your home carer are:
- Do they have the knowledge and care expertise to do what I need, and will they receive proper ongoing training?
- How will I vet them properly? Do they have a criminal record? Can I trust them in my home? Do they have a legal right to work in this country?
- Are they reliable, or do they have other commitments that may get in the way?
- What will happen when the carer is on holiday, or ill?
- How will I do the administering of payments, tax and national insurance? (See Penderels Trust for help with this.)
- What about contracts, employment law and workplace safety? (Often overlooked, as a recent article shows.)
Employing the services of a home care provider
It is generally safer and easier to employ the services of a home care organisation than to directly employ your own care staff. The provider will organise vetting and background checks, employer’s insurance, tax, national insurance and risk assessments. They will also ensure that the staff are appropriately trained for a range of possible scenarios, have backup staff in the event of holiday and sickness, and receive ongoing training and education specific to your circumstances. There are, however, a number of questions you will need to ask any organisation before you agree to arrange home care with them:
- Have you been registered by the Care Quality Commission, and are you a member of a professional body such as the UK Home Care Association?
- Do you have full professional indemnity and employer’s insurance?
- Do the carers receive full training before starting work?
- Are you available for contact 24 hours a day in an emergency?
- Is there a free initial assessment?
- What are your rates? Are there any additional costs?
- Is there any minimum number of hours per week?
- Are all carers fully vetted with enhanced criminal records checks and background checks?
- Will I get regular carers, or will they change from week to week?
- Will I get care at the time that I want, or at the time that is convenient to you that week?
- Is there a local manager, or is your office run from afar?
- If my needs change, do you have the expertise to change my care? Do you have the capacity to increase my care?
- How do you plan to support my independence, rather than just do my tasks for me?
- If I don’t like your carers, will you be able to change them? What is your complaints policy? How long am I tied in with you?
Summary
Overall, you are likely to be better off using the services of a specialist home care provider than directly employing a carer, provided you ask the right questions. In any event, as someone who receives Self Directed Support, if you have any problems you will always be able to go back to your assigned social care worker at the local council to amend your care plan.
How to tell your Baby Boomers from your SWOFTIES
Posted: January 14th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Grandparents, Miscellaneous | No Comments »
I was reminded to write something about labelling certain sectors of the population when a friend I met on the train this week (a self evident “Baby Boomer”) was trying to hold himself out as a “Generation X-er”.
So here goes:
Matures
By far one of the more complimentary names, “Matures” purportedly refers to people born before the Second World War.
Baby Boomers
People born roughly between 1946 and 1964 are often called baby boomers after birth rates boomed following the return of the soldiers after the Second World War. The term “baby boomer” divides opinion. Some like its rather positive, upbeat overtones while others consider it pejorative, suggesting pre-geriatric toddlers.
Generation X (or the Baby Busters)
People born between 1965 and late 70s /early 80s. According to some, this is the generation with a fondness for leisure which is not afraid to spend money.
Generation Y
Also known, rather dashingly, as the Millenium Generation, Gen Y-ers were born in the 1980s and 1990s.
SWOFTIES
A new one, this, coined I believe by the Financial Mail this week, SWOFTIES are Single Women Over 50 who like clubbing, Twitter and exotic holidays.
SKI-ERS
Baby Boomers and Matures spending the kids’ inheritance. We seem to be hearing less about this group these days, perhaps because the kids are just as likely to be spending their parents’ retirement fund in an effort to get on the housing ladder
Sandwich Generation
These are people caught in the middle of looking after their parents whilst raising their children. Not to be confused with :
Club Sandwich Generation
Grandparents looking after grandchildren, helping children out financially and caring for their own elderly parents.
So there you have it. Although a marketeer’s dream, labelling like this is not that helpful and noone comes out of this sort of classification well (although the SWOFTIES seem to be having fun!).
PS
Since first publishing this list, www.virtualgranny.com have also suggested MAPPY = Mature Affluent Pioneering People with Youthful Enthusiasm which has a nice ring to it!
About Retirement – dispatches from the front line – Part 49
Posted: January 14th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft, Miscellaneous | No Comments »Tales from the front line of inclusive product design
Posted: January 10th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Inclusive design, Press coverage | Comments Off
You might remember that in June last year, I spoke at the “We are enabled by design” conference at London’s Design Museum.
Our friends at www.enabledbydesign.org have just published an account of the product design session at which I presented together with other pioneers from the front line of enabled product design; sugru, Trabasack and MERU.
For a copy of the report and the slides, go to http://enabledbydesign.org/blog/2011/01/the-big-blog-backlog-part-two.html#comments-open
About retirement – dispatches from the front line – Part 48
Posted: January 10th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft, Health | No Comments »Ten top tips for future-proofing your bathroom
Posted: January 10th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Grandparents, Inclusive design | No Comments »
Maggie Winchcombe is a leading occupational therapist and is keen to promote ideas that could help us all accommodate the changes in the way our bodies work as we grow older. She is a Director of consultancy business, Years Ahead www.yearsahead.co.uk
It’s the start of a new year and the time for resolutions and plans! If you’re thinking about re-fitting or replacing your bathroom it’s worth considering how you can make it low maintenance and user-friendly for you in the future. Here are my 10 top tips for future- proofing your bathroom!
1. Don’t think ‘grab bars’ think ‘hand-rails’!
These are so useful and do not have to look ugly and out of place. There are some elegant, ‘designer’ chrome rails on the market now that look more like a bathroom feature and could co-ordinate with your towel rails. Or, why not install towel, or shower riser rails, that are robust enough to use as a hand-rail if necessary? There are some that are designed to be dual purpose. Even if you don’t want to install rails now make sure that the bathroom walls are sturdy enough to take the fixings as and when you want to add them.
2. Do away with non-slip mats!
If you’re buying a new bath or shower – get one with a non-slip surface so that you don’t have to bother with rubber mats that will need to be kept clean. Think about your options for non-slip flooring – cork, or specialist non-slip rubber floor finishes, are soft and warm to the touch as well as being non-slip when wet.
3. Maximise your space!
Bathrooms are usually the smallest room in the house, so if you’re re-fitting yours think about how you can make the most of the space you’ve got. Points to consider:
- Is the door wide enough if you need help, or to use a mobility aid in the future? Would a sliding, or bi-fold, door create more useful space?
- Is there enough space if you need help in the future to manoeuvre on and off the toilet; in and out of a bath or shower; or even sit to use the hand basin? Can you create more room by re-arranging the fittings?
4. Lighten up!
Good lighting becomes increasingly important as we grow older, so think about using a mirror which has lighting incorporated into the frame to minimise shadows.
5. If you want to bathe – think about….
…how easy you find it to get in and out of a bath now and what you might need in the future. A bath with handles that are well positioned for you to pull yourself up, or lean on when sitting down is essential. Some baths incorporate a small shelf or sitting area to make it easier to get up from the bottom. It’s worth trying these features out in the showroom before you buy!
6. If you want to shower – think about…
…whether you might want to sit and shower sometime in the future. If you use a cubicle you could include a wall-seat and hand-rail, or at least ensure the walls would take their weight when you do want to install them. You may need to decide on a ‘level-entry’ shower instead a cubicle with a step. There are plenty of wet-floor shower options to choose from. Whether you have an over-bath shower or a stand-alone one, think about a long shower-hose that is adaptable enough for sitting or standing to shower, or wash your hair.
7. Toilets come in different heights and shapes…
…but the ideal, modern solution is a wall-mounted toilet that maximises space, is easier to keep clean and can be fixed at a height that is right for you. More conventional close-coupled toilets are available in heights ranging from 390 – 460mm (15½ -18 in). Choose one that is not too low to get up easily, or too high so that your feet dangle.
8. Thermostatic shower and bath taps
It is worth thinking about bath and shower mixer taps that have thermostatic controls. They are economical as well as keeping you safe from scalding, should the water pressure suddenly drop.
9. Anti-flooding
You could install a modern stop-cock valve to turn water off at a flick of a switch. These connect directly to the water supply, close to the stopcock, and have a remote, water-activated switch at a convenient location for turning them off quickly and conveniently.
10. Finally….
Bear in mind that there are lots more products and ideas to make bathing and showering safer and more comfortable if mobility becomes an issue. Seek advice or go to a specialist retailer to see what’s available to help!
© Maggie Winchcombe
And the winner is…..
Posted: January 6th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Offers and competitions | Comments Off
We are very pleased to announce that the winner of our Christmas prize draw is Ms C of Leighton Buzzard!
One of our beautiful double handled teapots is on its way. Brimming with character, these teapots, made especially for The Future Perfect Company by Reckless Designs, have a useful second handle by the spout, making them easier to pour. Designed to complement the double handled mugs made by the same potter, the teapots are hand made and hand painted, making every one unique.
If you were not lucky enough to win this time but would still like to own one of these very special teapots, you can buy one HERE
Watch out for more competitons and draws in 2011!

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