Abstract:

The Government has now enunciated its alternative; its present policy is to depend increasingly on 'community care'. The primary objective of the Department's policy on the care of the elderly is to enable old people to maintain independent lives in the community for as long as possible. To this end, high priority is being given to the development of domiciliary provision and the encouragement of other measures designed to prevent or postpone the need for long-term care in hospital or residential homes.This then is the background of the survey carried out in April and May 1977 on behalf of Age Concern, a voluntary organisation, with funds provided by a private foundation. The questionnaire sought to discover what are the circumstances of the present non-institutional elderly population, what are their needs, how far and to what extent are they met, what use do they currently make of community care (as described above) and finally, to what extent does community care provide them with what they themselves regard as a satisfying life?