Our mission is to help people live longer betterThe 2023 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty was titled Health in an Ageing Society and set out clearly the challenge population ageing poses. The demographic data is often presented like an unstoppable tidal wave which will overwhelm health and social care but this is not the case.
Our mission is to enable people to live better for longer, to increase Healthy Life Expectancy and reduce the period of time at the end of life when people are very dependent on others. Our aim is also to reduce the gap between the most and least deprived sub-groups in our society. It is based on a clear understanding of the science and a strong evidence base. The number of people over 70 is going to increase significantly in the next ten years with, at present, little increase in healthy life expectancy in prospect. This has huge implications for health and social care services. It doesn’t have to be this way. The evidence is strong that we can reduce the risk of falls and prevent dementia, disability and frailty. In turn, this will reduce the need for health and social care by approximately £45m per million of population for every year of healthy life expectancy. More of the same won’t achieve this and nor will yet another reorganisation of health and social care services. It needs a revolution. This revolution is underway and one dimension is for every service and organisation to feel part of one integrated system for living longer better, which is described further here. It recognises that wellbeing is much more than the absence of disease and brings organisations and communities together to deliver the conditions that enable this. Three score years and ten is history. Most people now have years or decades in Extra Time to use the title of Camilla Cavendish's excellent book about how other societies, particularly in the in the East, Live Longer Better. It is not Injury time it's Extra Time with all to play for. A system, delivered by networksPopulation ageing is a complex challenge which cannot be met by either reorganising bureaucracies or shifting activity to the private sector. To increase healthy life expectancy, and reduce the gap between the most and the least deprived sub-groups in the population, and therefore reducing the need for health and social care requires an integrated care system “Certain nonlinear systems … are commonly described as being Complex, because their behaviour is defined to a large extent by local interactions between their components. When such systems are capable of evolution they are also known as Complex Adaptive Systems.” Source: Rihani, S (2002) Complex Systems Theory and Development Practice. Understanding non-linear realities. Zed Books Ltd. (p.7). The system is being delivered by local networks involving AgeUK, the Active Partnerships, the NHS, Local Authorities, faith and voluntary organisations and charities and the business community and, essentially, older people themselves. These networks are also leading a cultural revolution to counter ageism and create a positive environment which recognises the talents and potential of older people and appreciates what is needed to reduce the obstacles that too often prevent people realising their potential to contribute to society. Living Longer Better complements and supplements the Ageing Well programme of NHS England. The Ageing Well programme takes a systematic approach to identifying all the people with frailty, or at high risk of developing, frailty and ensuring the NHS clinical teams, particularly in primary care, take effective, evidence-based action to prevent deterioration and unnecessary hospital admission, because of the adverse effect that has on people with frailty no matter how high the quality of care in the hospital. However the distinguished epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose pointed out that it was also necessary to reduce. the risk of people at lower relative risk because there are so many more of them. He supported the need to identify the people at high risk , the top 10% of the population for example, but because the absolute numbers of people at lower risk are much higher, 90% of the population, the absolute number of people needing emergency care from the lower risk part of the population could be as high or even higher than the numbers of people from the group at higher relative risk. He emphasised that we need to "Shift the Whole Population Curve". Furthermore we need to adopt this approach earlier in life. The increase in the numbers of younger people who are off work long term is a major concern and they too suffer physical deconditioning and psychological problems which are too often treated only with pyschotropic drugs. They too need to be enabled to Live Longer Better.
The Aims of Living Longer BetterLive Longer Better has three aims.
Programmes of learning and engagementThe main intervention to achieve the goal of the revolution is not technological, although it is enabled by technology, but by two interlinked programmes. Firstly, learning that opens up new ways of thinking for older people, the family, professionals and volunteers who support them, and the leadership of key decision makers. This programme is based on the best current knowledge and delivered through online learning in small interactive groups. Secondly, by engaging people both locally and digitally in both individual and community action. We believe that everyone has a contribution to make to improve society.
Library and resourcesThere is strong scientific evidence that if we put into practice the knowledge that we already have, people can live longer better. Most of the serious problems that people face before their late nineties are not due to the normal, biological ageing process but to three other process that can be modified by individuals and society:
AdministrationWe are four teams working in partnership with the public health team in NHS England
The Optimal Ageing Programme , The e-learning specialists Learning with Experts Polyatrics The National Activity Therapy Service Please make contact [email protected] |
Knowledge, consumed through learning, is the Elixir of Life - the way we think about ageing is wrong; the new evidence from research lets us reimagine living longer and then realise the new paradigm and live longer better — Muir Gray