Care for older women: 'I've got no one left to help me. And I'm scared'

Mary was told recently that she had outlived her time. She agrees. Living alone in a remote area of Cornwall, the deaf and partially blind 88-year-old has attended the funerals of all her friends and most of her family. Her only child, a son, lives nearly three hours' drive away and is rarely able to visit.

"I'm old and I'm dreadfully vulnerable," she said. "I can't see and I can't hear, so it's not safe for me to go outside on my own. But inside my flat, I can't listen to the radio and I can't see the TV. I struggle to read with magnifiers. I've got no one left to help and support me. I'm lonely and I'm isolated. And I'm scared about the future."

Mary is one of the many thousands of vulnerable older woman in England today living out their days with little or no help from social services. Her story epitomises the impetus behind a campaign to overhaul the social care system in the runup to the government's publication of a funding white paper this spring.

Fonte: The Guardian, 29/02/2012

[Veja a matéria completa]

.