When I was younger one oft heard tales of neglect for the elderly but I never thought it to be any more than simply older people wanting more, as do younger people. Now rising 76 I have come to realise that it is not just neglect it is downright misunderstanding of the problems and the requirements, and in some cases the abilities of the elderly which is a sticking point.

Take today, for example, somebody invited me to attend a lecture on 'safety for the elderly', which really goes to show the mindset of the younger generations. Do they really think that we brought up children, endured WWII, and obtained this great age by being unaware of safety? What arrogance on the part of the lesser years to believe that we wish to sit and be lectured on safety by some spotty faced 30 year old.

To them, of course, frayed iron leads and door chains and telephone scams may be Bsc Hons subjects, but to the elderly it is old hat. From countless television programmes too, it would seem, that all adults are just as likely to be taken in by a clever scam, it is not age related!

What really gets my dander up is social housing and in some cases retirement housing, some of those on offer are just an insult to the elderly. I am in social housing myself and over the years I have been offered some unbelievably ill-designed accommodation. Bedrooms the size of box rooms, a lounge where one table an easy chair and a television is about the most you could pile into it.

For some time I did some voluntary work as a committee member on a couple of Age UK panels. This brought me in contact with the Department of Communities who were writing a report entitled 'A Strategy for Housing in an Ageing Society'. I broached the subject to them that elderly people simply needed less room, but that had somehow been processed to read older people need smaller rooms. They agreed it was dreadful, but as far as I know nothing was done about it!

So let me put the facts the elderly almost always have all sorts of knickknacks from the past and their children and grandchildren. So they need display furniture, such as a sideboard. The elderly also wear clothes, which means a bedroom must be large enough to also contain a decent sized wardrobe, which seems to have escaped many civic authorities and Housing Associations. Being parents and grandparents, too, they would often wish to be able to put up a child, or grandchild if they come to stay.

There are other little, but significant, social oversights that illustrate how little research is done with housing for the elderly. Generally speaking where a local authority or Housing Association property is said to be designed for an elderly couple, the bedrooms are often only adequate to take a 4' 6” bed. A cosy thought, it may be, but age tends to add weight and weight adds bulk, and there is hardly room for many elderly couples in a 4' 6” bed. Moreover, it is the age of aches and pains and arthritis that tends to dictate how well one sleeps. Two three feet beds are far more desirable for many, even better a bed in the spare room!

Lastly we have the OAP accommodation specifically designed for the single person. In these, apparently there an architectural civic authority and Housing Association belief, that the elderly, those over the age of 65 – that is, are ruled by a natural law which dictates that they will remain celibate; Well 'must' remain celibate actually, and this is rigidly enforced by making certain that there is no room for hanky-panky!

Vernon J Yarker
Founder the Sheltered Housing UK Association