Separating elderly couples is inhumane says top judge
SEPARATING elderly couples when they go into care is inhumane and could cause them to ‘die of a broken heart’, Britain’s most senior family judge said yesterday.
Sir James Munby said that he felt a sense of ‘ personal outrage’ with the separation of couples who have been together for decades.
He called for health and safety fears to take a back seat if ‘uprooting’ a person’s life made them miserable.
The judge, head of the Family Court, believes most people who rather stay with their partner than move away to somewhere ‘safer’.
Sir James said: ‘ I read with personal outrage reports of cases where the results of the operation of the system is that people who may have been together for 30, 40 or 50 years are separated in their final years. That is simple inhumanity’.
Sir James told the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services conference in Stafford that he believed the ‘inhumane’ practice could be fatal.
He added: ‘We do know that people die from what we colloquially call a broken heart. It is very striking. I have read of cases where one person died and then the other dies a couple of days later. How long do people last if they are uprooted? A very short time. It may mean putting them in some nice modern building which no doubt satisfies the building inspector but is simply not home to them.
‘It is no good just saying most people would prefer to live longer in nice new accommodation without breaking their neck; some people would not.’ There are nearly 300,000 elderly people living in care homes in England and Wales, with councils being obliged to respect a person’s right to family life.
Sir James said some couples are being forced apart, being told ‘you’re going to go here, you’re going to go there’.
He also said forcing older people to take part in group social activities, such as line- dancing and bingo nights, could leave them miserable.
He remarked: ‘You are actually putting someone in a regime which may not allow them to smoke, or a regime where for their own good they may be required or heavily persuaded to indulge in the kind of collective jollification which they would have loathed at home.’
Studies have shown that thousands of elderly people die within the first year of being admitted to a care home.
A study by the London School of Economics showed that the average time an older person stays alive in a care home is 15 months. The study, published in 2011, also found that older people have just a 55 per cent chance of surviving their first year in a care home. For the second year, this rises to 70 per cent.
Broken heart syndrome, known by experts as stress cardiomyopathy, is a real condition that can be fatal. The shock from loss of a loved one can cause the left ventricle to change shape, weakening the heart.
A study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal found that those who had suffered a recent bereavement were twice as likely to suffer a stroke or heart attack than someone who had not.
Sir James, president of the High Court’s family division since 2013, is due to retire next year.
‘Collective jollification’