'Spend to save plan can help older folk to thrive'

AGEING WELL: A tea party at the King's Hall next month offers the chance to hear about a new partnership to improve the lives of older people.

- Cliff Hathaway MBE - Vice chair, North Staffs Pensioners' Convention

By 2030 two thirds of the world will live in cities. By then here in Stoke-on-Trent at least a quarter of folk will be over 60 years of age.

Along with the many pleasures old age offers, sadly it can bring problems for individuals and families alike.

We often see headlines warning of an elderly care crisis looming, increased bed blocking in hospitals, thousands more will have to sell homes to pay for care etc.

It would be churlish to ignore the current problems and foolish to ignore the fact that as the proportion of older adults increases so will the demands for more health and social care services, jobs and resources.

It is, as always, easy to spot the problems and much more difficult to find solutions.

One initiative to plan ahead will be to continue the work completed by Stoke-on-Trent City Council who originally signed up as a member of the World Health Authority (WHO -not the band!) to make Stoke-on-Trent an Age Friendly City.