91Èȱ¬

On the front page of today's Western Mail there's a stunning photograph.

I saw the snappers yesteday looking down on the scene in the chamber from the gallery, wondered what they saw that we'd have seen too if we'd looked more closely. The editor's pick was described to me last night but good pictures - like this one - speak for themselves. Rhodri Morgan leaves the chamber, head slightly bowed and no-one gives him a second glance. Four AMs get on with the job and don't even look up as he walks on by.

This "older person"? He'll be fine, of course. He will more than likely live an "active and fulfilled life" digging his garden and getting his hands dirty if there's a referendum campaign to fight. But the image was a reminder of a report published yesterday that got little enough attention: the Older People's Monitor 2009. Here was another snapshot that told a story.

It's an amalgamation of independent analysis of official indicators relating to the well being of older people in Wales - i.e. statistics - and a survey of a small number of older people - i.e. real people, real stories. The Monitor is there to focus Government policy and focus the minds of a nation that has more older people per head than any other part of the UK.

Another fact: the number of people who live to be eighty five and over is likely to double from 2007 - 2031. Work out how that will impact on any number of statistics and budgets and lives in future.

What does the Monitor tell us?

That older people believe social attitudes towards them are negative.

That they're not aware enough of the entitlements available to them.

That they feel it's not fair people like them who've saved and been careful

That older people who are working now want to carry on working as long as they can.

That they don't want to go into residential care unless they really, really have to but that too few get the grab rails and showers and stairlifts that would allow them to carry on living independently.

That they're afraid of what sort of treatment they'll get in hospital, even if it turns out to be pretty good. Another snapshot: an 82 year old woman who'd been in hospital at the same time as her husband. She says she'd asked to see him for days but that when she was eventually wheeled to his bedside and took his hand, she realised he was dead.

Services are patchy. Money is tight. There are real concerns around mental deterioration and loss of independence.

That's the black bit of picture - the first comprehensive survey of the well being of older people the Assembly Government has undertaken. There are white bits too of course, the stories told by those older people who live a fulfilled life and who get the help they need.

What happens next?

No point asking the man who was heading for the exit yesterday.

Carwyn Jones will be voted in as First Minister this afternoon, not long after the Chancellor has revealed just how bare the cupboard really is.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?