University of Buckingham Press

Western populations are aging. Medical advances and lifestyles have extended lives while fertility rates have declined. That is, the elderly of today are living longer than their parents but had fewer children themselves. The result is that the fastest-growing demographic is the retired, with fewer younger people in work as a proportion to support them through their taxes. Meanwhile that aging population demands more and more medical and social care. Our demand for healthcare can be thought of as a U-shaped chart

Short of resources with stretched staff, the problem in many homes is that with all the routine tasks of changing sheets, clearing up, tidying, bringing food and the like, staff simply do not have time to talk to those they care for. And yet that essentially human interaction is so desperately needed by many elderly; it is what caring is about. And it is all the more important when one considers that rates of depression and suicide are relatively prevalent amongst those residents in care homes. While still rare to completion, a systematic review conducted in 2014 showed just how common suicidal thoughts in care residents are and the suggestive evidence of the importance of the care environment including staffing has on this.3

The world’s first public telegraph company was founded in 1846 by the inventor William Fothergill Cooke and financier John Lewis Ricardo.