|
|
Government Urged to Back Research Into Ageing
By Ben Pindar, Community Newswire
UK
July 25, 2005
A charity research body has today welcomed a new House of Lords report on ageing which calls on the Government to do more to fund scientific research that can help older people.
The House of Lords select committee on Science and Technology report, entitled "Ageing: Scientific Aspects", emphatically requests more is done to support studies that benefit the country's pensioners.
Dr. Lorna Layward, research manager for Research into Ageing, the special trust for biomedical research within Help the Aged, said: "Help the Aged is very encouraged by this House of Lord's report which goes a long way towards fulfilling the recommendations we provided.
"A positive response from the Government is now needed to buck its trend for inadequate investment on research into ageing.
"UK charities invest about £125m each year on research into ageing and more funding is vitally needed to improve this amount."
"It is therefore disappointing to note that, for example, the Government Department of Health invests only £4.8m into research into ageing each year.
Such small investments by key government departments leave the UK scandalously unprepared for the baby boomer generation who are about to enter their later lives in vast numbers."
Research into Ageing is a key commentator on these issues and is the sole UK charitable body devoted purely to researching ageing and related health conditions.
It has been funding age research for 29 years and this year is investing £2.5m to help prevent and treat stroke, dementia, incontinence and other areas that significantly affect people's quality of later life.
Professor David Kipling, chairman of the Research Advisory Council, said: "The work funded by Help the Aged trust Research into Ageing illustrates how life-changing age research can be."
"Research into Ageing's many achievements include a unique, practical exercise programme, that was adopted by the Department of Health, which helps older people who have fallen to reduce the chance of another fall by almost 50%.
"This a major step because falls are the major cause of accidental death in the UK and result in one million people over 60 ending up in hospital each year.
"The cost to the NHS and social services is £1 billion a year and this too will be reduced by good research.
"The success stories should be celebrated but they occur against a tragic backdrop in which the vast majority of necessary research cannot be done because of a lack of funding."
Funding for Research into Ageing comes from people in all walks of life as well as corporate sponsors.
Currently funding only allows one in every thirty-one valuable research projects to be taken up - an indication of the degree of extra funding that is required.
For more information about how to donate visit Help the Aged's website at
www.helptheaged.org.uk
|
|
