Health Begins at Home

Housing and housing services are of fundamental importance to the health and independence of older people in Britain. Although this need has been repeatedly demonstrated by research projects, their findings have little impact on local planning systems, which consistently fail either to quantify the need or to make provision to meet it. To consider the reasons for this lack of impact, a systematic analysis of English community care plans and Directors of Public Health Reports was undertaken. In addition, field visits were made together with a review of some of the key literature relating to planning, community care and private healthcare. Overall the data suggested a range of problems, some of them deep-seated and embedded within the fabric of society itself, which were shaping institutional and professional behaviours in this policy area. The authors propose a co-ordinated strategy to tackle the problems currently blocking the planning process. This includes the collection of data from front-line staff and from older people themselves and, at the heart of the strategy, a fundamentally different role for Directors of Public Health.
The purpose of the report overall, however, is to offer an analysis for consideration by those who are involved in planning at any level and to stimulate or assist debate about solutions that could benefit older people and service providers alike.