Social care

Recent results published by Newcastle University, UK, show that the number of care home places for the country’s most frail will need to increase by a third within a decade. To cope with the increased rise in life expectancy, the study suggests that assistive technology could provide the early intervention essential for delaying the onset of disabling diseases and conditions. The study, published in The Lancet, revealed an extra 71,215 care home places will be needed by 2025, from a total of about 220,000 places in 2015. It goes on to show that over the past 20 years, life expectancy has continued to increase, but this does not mean that the extra years have necessarily been healthy. Approximately one more...Read More

As the UK was led through a tumultuous debate surrounding social care costs in the 2017 snap election, other countries were forced to reflect on the impending changes their societies will face as their populations age. Researchers from the AAL Programme believe technology can give independence back to both the ageing generation and their carers, whilst simultaneously reducing damaging care costs. For almost two decades, social care and how it is paid for has been a thorny topic for politicians all over Europe due to an ageing population and the rising care costs this inevitably brings. The issue came to prominence in the UK recently when, during the 2017 snap general election, Theresa May’s Conservatives dredged up unfinished business by...Read More