THE CARE INDUSTRY


FOCUS FEATURE


Educating people about lifestyle choices could pay dividends in the long-run


age is seen as a time of increasing dependency, vulnerability and frailty. But older people already contribute significantly to their families’ and wider communities’ wellbeing. “Population ageing and increasing longevity are now


world-wide phenomena. In the future, integrated life-long preventative care and support will enable resources like community pharmacies and community nursing to be used to optimum effect, permitting progressively longer healthy life expectancies”. The report goes on to state that: “an increasing policy emphasis on extending healthy life expectancy as an explicitly planned, high priority objective, will lead to even higher ‘pay-backs’… the adoption of protective lifestyles as well as increased levels of safe and effective medicine and vaccines use would help increase healthy life expectancy faster than overall life expectancy”. From this point of view it is clear that it will take some


It's widely accepted that the NHS is under significant pressure


‘It is important to embrace and celebrate the evolutions and innovations in all facets of healthcare that enable more people to live longer’


So while it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge


that an ageing population is having, and will continue to have, a very profound effect on healthcare in the UK and is a contributing factor to what the British Red Cross has deemed a ‘humanitarian crisis’ relating to the NHS, it seems that both opportunities and advantages exist when analysing the effect of an ageing population on healthcare. It’s the IIASA study that is perhaps most interesting and


revealing in relation to the long-term outlook for healthcare. If, as it suggests, there is to be an upward trend relating to how long people are staying healthy for, this further strengthens the argument put forward with regards to opportunities and reasons for cautious optimism. If moving forward, the millennials, for example, continue


this trend and stay healthier for longer, the balance could start shifting with more people staying healthier – and therefore productive – for longer periods. In a UCL report, Active Ageing: Live Longer and Prosper –


produced with financial support from Chamber member Alliance Boots – Dr Jennifer Gill, co-author of the report, strengthens this claim when she states that: “all too often


time, and perhaps a significant behavioural shift such as added emphasis on health and wellbeing in schools and in the workplace, to come to fruition. It may well be a generational thing. While educating current and future generations to live healthier lifestyles might not provide the short-term fix that the NHS and wider healthcare needs in dealing with demand, it does at least safeguard healthcare in this country and create a sustainable model for tackling an ageing population in the future. This will clearly have a positive knock-on effect with


regards to the conversation surrounding social healthcare, with people remaining healthy and therefore independent for longer; albeit age-related diseases such as dementia, growing in prevalence, will continue to be a pressure point. So the overarching point is that while decision and policy


makers, stakeholders and society in general must face up to an ageing population and the irrefutable direct and indirect effects this will have on healthcare, and while these pose short-, mid- and long-term challenges, it is important to embrace and celebrate the evolutions and innovations in healthcare that enable more people to live longer, more fulfilling and more productive lives. With this in mind, the future contributions made by an ageing population are likely to be significant.


business network May 2017 41


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