So what else is there?
When we talk about the WIGO vision and principles we often talk about a need for a much wider range of diverse support and services, able to help our older selves to live our lives our way. When we raise that aspiration, we sometimes add that there must be more for us to choose from than homecare ‘calls’ and care home ‘beds’. We make this challenge not because we think either of these models are inherently problematic, we know there are some amazing services operating in this space, but more because we think greater choice should be a given. At this point some in the room invariably raise a hand and ask the question ‘but what else is there?’. A great question to ask and a challenge we decided to rise to.
So, this is a space for us to capture and share the answer to that question. We think answers will fit into 3 rough categories:
1. Weaving solutions for ourselves
We know that lots of people live their whole life away from serviceland, finding ways to get the help they need in ways that work for them. Sometimes they make this happen on their own and often they get support from family or friends to make things happen. We think that people do things like join groups; call on supportive family members, friends or neighbours; employ their own companion, supporter or personal assistant or otherwise weave a highly personalised web of care and support. Get in touch and/or send us your examples and stories that fit this category.
2. Models supporting people…but not older people
We know there are great examples of services and supports that might look more like ‘care’ or formal support and may even be regulated care services. They happen in this country or abroad and deliver really good outcomes for people. But crucially, whilst they are established and valued for some people, they are not available for many or even any older people in the UK. We think these might include approaches like Shared Lives; supported living offered to people with a learning disability or kinship support. We want to capture one page business profiles – detailed, business examples of models that work well for some people but not for older people…yet!
3. Models supporting UK older people well
We know that there are lots of fantastic services and supports helping older people in the UK right now. They create brilliant outcomes for people and are highly valued but only people in a certain geographic area or set of circumstances can access what they offer. We think these might include cohousing projects; award winning alms houses or housing developments; very small and/or highly creative care homes or intergenerational initiatives. We want to capture stories and possibly detailed business examples of these UK models that serve some older people well.
Get in touch with your stories, examples and profiles. We want to collate them all and use them in 2 ways. Firstly to answer the ‘but what else is there’ question and secondly to help make more of the good stuff happen for more people.