Around 250,000 vulnerable pensioners could be left without family care by 2041, opening up an unpaid care gap and potentially increasing demand for paid services, finds new research by LSE research fellow Linda Pickard.

Demand for unpaid care by frail older people from their adult children is projected to rise by 90 per cent in the next 35 years - yet the number of offspring projected to provide the intense care likely to meet their needs (care for 20 hours a week or more) will only rise by 27 per cent. More

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Individual Budgets put you in the driving seat, concludes joint evaluation

Individual budgets – a government initiative allowing older, disabled and mentally ill people to control their own social care provision – are great for the majority of users but pose challenges for staff administering them, found a cross-institutional team brought together to evaluate them.

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Visiting academic 'highly commended' in medical book competition

Dr Ann Richardson, a visiting fellow with PSSRU, has been awarded by the British Medical Association (BMA) for her latest book.

Entitled Life in a Hospice; reflections on caring for the dying (Radcliffe Publishing, September 2007), the book was awarded 'highly commended' in the medicine category of the BMA Book Competition 2008.

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New PSSRU paper on age discrimination

The UK government has announced proposals to make discrimination in goods and services on the basis of age illegal. Equalities Minister Harriet Harman introduced the proposals on 26 June as part of a package of measures in an Equalities Bill.

The Department of Health commissioned research from the PSSRU on age discrimination in mental health services to inform policy proposals. A summary report is now available - Age Discrimination in Mental Health Services (PDF).

Professor Martin Knapp receives NIHR Senior Investigator Award

Schemes Providing Support to People Using Direct Payments: A UK Survey

PSSRU have recently released their second report from the Direct Payments Survey project looking at schemes providing support to people using direct payments. The full report – termed by Community Care as “one of the most detailed pictures to date of the challenges facing direct payment support schemes" - is available here (PDF).

See the full news item from Community Care.

Future supply of informal care for younger adults and older people

The PSSRU was funded by the Strategy Unit (Cabinet Office) and the Department of Health to produce projections of the supply of informal care for younger adults and older people in England to 2041. For both younger adults and older people, the supply of informal care was compared to demand in future years. The analyses focus on the supply of intense care provided for 20 or more hours a week and on demand for social care from disabled people. The results show that, on the assumptions used, future informal care supply is projected to be lower than estimated demand in respect of both younger adults and older people. Two Discussion Papers are now available:

Pickard L (2008a) Informal Care for Younger Adults in England: Current Provision and Issues in Future Supply, England 2005-2041, Report to the Strategy Unit (Cabinet Office) and the Department of Health, PSSRU Discussion Paper 2513, London.

Pickard L (2008b) Informal Care for Older People Provided by their Adult Children: Projections of Supply and Demand to 2041 in England, Report to the Strategy Unit (Cabinet Office) and the Department of Health, PSSRU Discussion Paper 2515, London.

Latest issue of the PSSRU Bulletin, December 2007

PSSRU Bulletin No 17 is now available to download.

BBC Care Calculator

Professor Bleddyn Davies receives APHA award

New research shows dementia burden will be £5.8 billion more then predicted

A recently completed report, commissioned by the Alzheimer's Research Trust, provides updated figures as to the cost of providing long-term care to older people with dementia, and finds that the cost will increase to £16.7 billion by 2031, as opposed to £10.9 billion as estimated in 2003.
View the ART press release for further information.

A summary of the report's findings have been published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Comas-Herrera A, Wittenberg R, Pickard L, Knapp M (2007) Cognitive impairment in older people: future demand for long-term care services and the associated costs, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 1037-1045.

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