BU experts talk on the UK's ageing society

15 March 2013

BU's Health and Social Care experts were in demand this week as a Lords committee announced that the UK is "woefully underprepared" for the social and economic challenges presented by an ageing society.

The committee said "the gift of longer life" could lead to "a series of crises" in public service provision, and Keith Brown, from BU's National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work, and Anthea Innes, from BU's Dementia Institute, were on hand to tell radio listeners what this could mean for their respective industries.

Speaking to Julian Clegg on BBC Radio Solent's Breakfast show (and tying in nicely with the morning show's biscuit theme), Keith Brown said, "I wonder whether listeners see the NHS as a tough ginger nut or a crumbling cookie at the moment."

Keith continued, "One of the things that is often missing on these reports is that the majority of the elderly in our society have always been cared for by their family. We really need to think about how we are going to support people to care for the elderly in their own community."

The conversation moved on to the subject of paying for all of the expertise needed, with Keith stating, "We have got to get some sort of stability in the system. We in society need an honest debate about how we value the elderly in our society and how are we going to care for them."

Anthea Innes, Director of Bournemouth University's Dementia Institute, was asked to comment on the same story for local radio station Wave 105. Anthea spoke about the pressure that will be put on dementia carers with the rise in elderly people.

She stated that, "Dementia has more of a financial burden than cancer on the NHS already" and that the financial burden would only get heavier as the number of elderly people increases.

For more information about the work of the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work you can visit their website.

For more information about BUDI you can visit BUDI's web pages.