Opinion
social care system was struggling and in desperate need of reform. There have been red flags for years. People get stuck in hospital when they do not need to be there, care packages become gold dust in the winter months and care homes have become a mass housing solution for people who do not always need the services they provide. All of this ultimately stems from the fact that we have not been able to give people enough options about how or where they live as they get older.
How the housing sector can help A report published in December by Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO) and Later Life Ambitions (LLA) showed that 90 per cent of people think the UK government should widen the housing options for older people, with more than half interested in moving but lacking good local downsizing options.3
the choice to move into a property that has available care and support, the appetite increases to 70 per cent. The message from the research is
clear. We need to give people more housing options, and crucially those which provide care, in more locations. This is why housing with care has such a huge role to play in the future social care landscape. Housing with care does exactly what it
says on the tin. It is high quality housing that can adapt to people’s changing needs with wellbeing, care and support available as it is needed. This can range from preventative wellbeing measures such as dietary and exercise support, help with day-to-day tasks from getting the shopping put away to giving medication, right through to full end of life care with 24-hour support, or professional help if
there is an emergency. The technology that supports housing
When given
with care is becoming more sophisticated by the day. In our newest villages, like Audley Cooper’s Hill in Englefield Green, Surrey, we have installed pressure mats under the flooring that directly alert the care team if movement patterns are not as expected, or if someone has fallen. On the back of demand from our owners,
we are also looking at linking key fobs to the wi-fi network at Audley Stanbridge Earls in Hampshire. This will enable us to check owners’ daily movements unobtrusively and pick up any unusual patterns. The benefits of being able to provide
this type of living are numerous. It enables people to stay independent, in their own home for longer, get home and out of hospital faster because a care package is available immediately and ultimately reduces the number of people needing to move into a care home. This is known
to have not just physical benefits but can also support mental health. Yet housing with care also goes further
than this. We have been on a journey over the last two years to make our Audley villages not just somewhere people can live, with the care available as they need, but somewhere people can actively improve their health and wellbeing. Using the eight key pillars of wellness - emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual – we will also focus on moving to a more proactive wellness approach. We have specialist personal trainers
to help people get stronger and fitter, or recover from operations quicker, menus in our restaurants designed with nutrition in mind, while trainers are also on hand to support property owners with their own day-to-day nutrition, through to a full schedule of events which help to reduce feelings of loneliness or isolation. All of this, without a doubt, helps to ease the strain on the social care system and the NHS at the same time. The most recent report on this topic was
done by the team at Aston University in 2015. They showed that living in a retirement village leads to a 46 per cent decrease in the number of planned GP visits.4 When looking at the time people
who live in retirement villages spend in hospital, research from ExtraCare Charitable Trust showed there was a 31 per cent decrease in planned hospital admissions and the duration of stays dropped from an average of eight to 14 days to one to two.5 These figures speak for themselves. Fewer people needing hospital care
April 2021 •
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