One in four older people in the UK have become so worried about the future that they are making themselves ill, according to a report produced by older people’s charity Help the Aged.
Vulnerable older people in the UK are faced with ageism, neglect, poverty, isolation and future deprivation. The charity’s research also found that 29% claim that health professionals tend to treat older people as a nuisance.
The number of older people concerned about their future to the extent that their physical health has been affected has risen by the equivalent of nearly a million in the last year.
The charity is urging the government to remedy the long-term neglect of older people and to ease their worries by ensuring they have equal rights and are free from discrimination, wherever it confronts them, from hospitals to the high street.
Paul Cann, Director of Policy and External Relations at Help the Aged, said: “It’s appalling that we live in a society where older people feel sick with worry about the future.
“The government must ease their concerns by banning the ageism that continually sinks its poison right into the heart of our society.”
