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One-fifth of Britons do not want to care for elderly relatives, a report
for the Salvation Army has suggested. People were reluctant to care for others as there was little
"return" for them, said the Henley Centre report, published on
Tuesday. Many people believed the government, charities, the private
sector and individuals should share responsibility for care, the
organisation said. The study also identified children, carers and the disabled
as needy. However, there was confusion about who should provide what
care. It urged discussion between the so-called four pillars of
care in order to avoid vulnerable people falling through the gaps in care.
The report identified the needy as "the time-consuming,
the unfashionable and the unrewarding". People were naturally less inclined to spend valuable time
on things that, whilst being "worthy", did not seem to have a
justifiable "return" on them or fell outside their interest, it
said. The research indicated that in contemporary British society,
21% of Britons do not want to care for their elderly relatives and 34% are
concerned that there will not be anyone to look after them when they are
old. Thirty-seven percent agree that the government is currently
having to fund many of the basic social services that should be provided
by the family. The Salvation Army's Captain Dean Pallant, who worked on the
report, told BBC News society had become more "me-focused". 'Creative solutions'
He said: "We are very busy, we don't have much time and
we lack energy. "We are moving a lot and we don't have commitment to
one geographical area." Captain Pallant said the report did not want to apportion
blame but sought "creative solutions" such as a government
scheme to reward volunteering. The study found that while the private sector was
increasingly playing a more important role in this area, 80% of people
agreed that companies had a responsibility to help support the society in
which they operate. The army warned that such a gap would "inevitably lead
to high numbers of elderly people having to care for themselves at home,
low-income families blighted by a lack of affordable childcare, informal
carers receiving little or no respite and people suffering from addictions
having little or no access to detox programmes". The Henley Centre asked questions of 1,040 people in October 2003. Copyright © 2002
Global Action on Aging |
