Cars and careers have left elderly forgotten – former Archbishop
Is George Carey suggesting we turn the clock back on adult social care or is he just wallowing in nostalgia? Either way this article raises some interesting perspective about the challenges facing isolated old people in rural areas. The article tells us:
The car and new career patterns have “hollowed out” the bonds of family life which once provided vital care and support for elderly, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has argued.
A once common pattern of working class family life which “revolved around the older generation” has all-but disappeared because of greater mobility has scattered communities, he said.
Addressing a conference on ageing in modern Britain, the peer, 80, also suggested respect for older people had declined because people no longer know the 10 Commandments.
He said that the once familiar Fifth Commandment – “honour thy father and thy mother” – had fostered a belief in the “primacy of the elderly” in previous generations.