Caring for the elderly is a cultural dilemma
I’ve found myself wondering at the almost singularly negative tone of the debate around our rapidly ageing society, with the number of people over 85 set to rise by two-thirds by 2030. The NHS is under pressure and much of last week was dominated by panicked reports about health and social care, and whether the system can sustain the demands that will be placed on it.
It is only right that we should think seriously about a fair way to address this.
Nevertheless, the fact that medical and technological advances mean that so many of us are living so much longer can only be a good thing; “an ageing population” is a problem our ancestors a century ago (who could expect to live to just 54), and poorer countries even today would be only too happy to have to deal with. As far as problems go, it’s a good one to have – as long as it can be solved.
What of that solution? It has been suggested that one of the drivers of the current crisis is that families are unwilling, or unable, to look after their elderly, leaving the state to take them on. Many British people have instinctive sympathy with this argument, sometimes looking to learn from other cultures’ approach to it.
It’ll come as a surprise to nobody that the familyorientated culture of much of the East means that most of the elderly population live with younger relatives. Things may be changing now, but growing up in such a culture, I cannot think of a single friend who didn’t live in the same house as their grandparents or great uncles and aunts. It would have been considered unusual and unfortunate for a child to grow up without at least one grandparent, the “elder” or head of the family, who would be looked after by the younger members when they became frail.
But there is a flipside to this. In a multi-generational extended family, the personal freedom of everyone concerned is inevitably eroded to some degree, but particularly the women. As women are considered to be primary carers, wives and daughters are expected to put not just family but extended family before education if there is ever a conflict between the two. Even in communities where women are encouraged to have an education, it is enormously difficult to be career-focused, particularly if it’s perceived to be at the cost of the family.
For many if not most in my generation, this is too high a price to pay. Freedom is hard-earned, and perhaps something we take for granted in modern Britain. Arguably the greatest prize of living in the West is the ability to set one’s own course in life. Family and the community may well have an influence on one’s life but they don’t seek to define it.
The role of the caring family has been replaced by the state, with demands increasing in size and remit (childcare vouchers, mental health support, for example – provided by the family in other cultures). But if we’re uncomfortable with strong family ties encroaching on individual freedom, and equally uncomfortable with high taxes and a big state, this leaves us with a cultural dilemma – and one that won’t be solved by politicians fiddling at the edges.
I look towards the miracle of technology to ultimately deliver a solution. But in the meantime, unless individuals can make much greater provision for themselves, we seem destined to muddle through as we are. FOLLOW Dia Chakravarty on Twitter @DiaChakravarty;
at telegraph.co.uk/opinion
There has been some – but not nearly enough – discussion of the startling shift in the political landscape of the West. That is, that the Left has become the voice of national elites in the countries which are generally thought to set the pace of First World discourse.
This move, which was quite sudden and scarcely anticipated, is being openly embraced by parties that were traditionally identified with concern for the poor and disadvantaged, but which now express explicit dislike of their own historic constituency. It has been noted that Labour in its Corbynite incarnation is campaigning on behalf of north London rather than the north of England, and that the Democrats in the United States are obsessed with metro-centric identity politics rather than the despair of the post-industrial working class – but there is hardly any serious debate about where this might lead or what its consequences will be for the great mass of people who now feel abandoned in the electoral game.
It may be difficult to recall that, until about 20 minutes ago, Labour’s To order prints or signed copies of any Telegraph cartoon, go to telegraph.co.uk/ prints-cartoons or call 0191 603 0178 readerprints@ telegraph.co.uk