What the papers said in the week ending 27 August 2022
Older people:
It is a time when the needs of frail older people for care are in the headlines, as planning and delivery of care are not meeting these predictable needs: This is a source of shame – we must use our shared resources more responsibly than this:
- Staffing crisis leaves many English care home residents’ basic needs unmet | Social care | The Guardian
- Half of care workers in England earn less than entry level supermarket roles | Care workers | The Guardian
- The Guardian view on the social care recruitment crisis: pay staff what they are worth | Editorial | The Guardian
- Care work has been undervalued for years. Now we see the consequences | Letters | The Guardian
Parks:
Parks are a source of health and pleasure to people of all ages – They too deserve appropriate support: Funding for England’s parks down £330m a year in real terms since 2010 | Access to green space | The Guardian
- ‘Desperate’ UK councils hiring out more parks to festivals, warns expert | Access to green space | The Guardian
- Parks at risk: ‘If it was not for the volunteers, we would struggle’ | Access to green space | The Guardian
- Many of the volunteers working on parks are older people – glad to use their time in this way, but there is need for balance by professional and properly educated paid employees, including trainees for the future.
Failure to protect the infrastructure incudes the NHS: Parts of England have one NHS dentist for thousands of people, data shows | Dentists | The Guardian
Health and therapy:
Some new treatments come from improving on established therapies: New cancer treatment offers hope to patients out of options | Cancer research | The Guardian
- Some have very worrying implications: UK fertility watchdog considers laws for gene editing and lab-grown eggs | Genetics | The Guardian
- Some are formalisations of what is generally accepted practice: GPs to prescribe walking and cycling in bid to ease burden on NHS | NHS | The Guardian
- They may have surprising efficacy against even the most modern diseases: Regular physical activity may lessen Covid risks, study finds | Coronavirus | The Guardian
- Some new treatments sound a little dubious: Mild electric shocks to the brain may protect older people from memory loss | Medical research | The Guardian
But another tried and tested recommendation of a good night’s sleep will find general approval and be good for the way we treat each other: Sleepless nights make people more selfish and asocial – study | Sleep | The Guardian
Covid:
Covid remains very much with us, despite moves which seem to suggest otherwise: Twice as many people died with Covid in UK this summer compared with 2021 | Coronavirus | The Guardian
Professor David Oliver tells of the impact of a covid infection on himself as a person, and on the modification which it has dealt to his midlife plans: David Oliver: My personal pandemic experience is just one of many | The BMJ
Poverty:
Many people in the UK are facing poverty within the coming months: UK inflation will hit 18% in early 2023, says leading bank Citi | Inflation | The Guardian
- Younger people feel that this situation is the inevitable product of failed strategies pursued by their elders: Stop telling gen Z to relax – we have to fix the mess left by your generation | Letters | The Guardian
- Unfairness and corporate greed do not represent the best of humanity: Record profits for grain firms amid food crisis prompt calls for windfall tax | Food | The Guardian
Frustrations are leading to strikes and strikes have consequences: Edinburgh faces rat surge due to refuse workers’ strike, warn heritage leaders | Edinburgh | The Guardian
The Guardian view on England’s sewage crisis: a Tory stink | Editorial | The Guardian
Consequences spread beyond human beings: RSPCA shelters ‘drowning’ in animals amid cost of living crisis | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian
Other matters of consequence:
Reassurance that dementia is a problem which is not confined to homo sapiens: Dogs’ risk of canine dementia rises by more than 50% each year, study finds | Dogs | The Guardian
Older people are sometimes in the news accused of illegal activities: Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone pleads not guilty to fraud charge | UK news | The Guardian
Churches may stray beyond the law in their attempts to spread the gospel message: Texas church issues apology for unauthorised ‘Christian’ Hamilton that rewrote bawdy raps | Hamilton | The Guardian
Parts of the brain have very specialised functions: Brain scran: pictures of food appear to trigger specific neurons, scientists find | Neuroscience | The Guardian
The way you spell some words says a lot about you: When -ize spellings were standard English | Letters | The Guardian
The use of new technology has many benefits but we must beware of its toxicity and inhumanity, especially to older people and the less able: Rise of the parking app makes the rich richer as motorists struggle | Motoring | The Guardian
And all of this goes on while war progresses into the second half of a year in Ukraine and Russia Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant partly reconnected to Ukraine grid | Ukraine | The Guardian
David Jolley Chair of Christians on Ageing, in a personal capacity. August 2022
