This was my first full week back at work since I took annual leave this summer and as is often the case I have been catching up on meetings and reading reports. With your indulgence I want to reflect on some of the event(s) and meetings of the week because they each had a common theme, namely what is real partnership like.

I got around to reading the first report from the UK Covid Inquiry which was published last Friday 19^th July. Baroness Hallett and her team did not miss their targets. The first Module was an examination of the extent to which as a country we were or were not prepared for a pandemic. The resounding answer was that we singularly were not but more than that that there was a complacency that we were better prepared than most. As the public health specialist Prof Devi Sridhar from Edinburgh University opined last weekend:

“the UK government failed in its basic responsibility to its citizens of keeping them safe. The UK had too many preventable deaths, not only from Covid, but also from the shutdown of health services and a long lockdown that would have been unnecessary had public health systems been in place.”

We prepared for the wrong pandemic and the Inquiry has called for ‘fundamental reform of the UK government and devolved nations’ preparedness for civil emergencies.’

Anyone involved in the world of social care before and during the pandemic cannot but agree with Lady Hallet and her findings. We saw the consequences first hand. Her recommendations make it clear that co-ordination, communication and critical whole system planning, and engagement are necessary to avoid any future disaster from happening.

Since her report there have been a number of articles considering the extent to which we are better or worse prepared for another pandemic and the likelihood of which we may need to face that reality. If some, like Sridhar are right, not least around avian flu (H5N1) and its growing threat to human health, then preparing for the future is critical. And that’s what worries me.

Hallett makes 10 clear recommendations and at their heart is a call for the simplification of pandemic planning and response. Planning exercises should be held every three years, and their results reported to the public, as well as the criticality of identifying at risk groups and to avoid a sense of ‘group think.’ All absolutely spot on, in my opinion.

The extent to which frontline social care providers and organisations from the independent and third sector were kept away from the planning table was appalling before and in many instances during the pandemic. I have said as much during evidence I have already given to the UK and Scottish Covid Inquiries. But far from learning those lessons I fear we continued and are continuing to embed poor practice which is at risk of repeating the errors and tragedies of the recent past.

The Scottish Government set up a body called the ‘Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness’ in the spring of 2022 to learn the lessons and to better prepare and plan for any future pandemic.

Its terms of reference stated that its membership would:

‘include scientific and technical experts from fields including public health, epidemiology, virology, behavioural sciences, global health, medicine, veterinary medicine, zoonoses and statistical modelling. In addition to independent experts, members may be clinicians and officials from the Scottish Government and associated agencies, selected for their role in pandemic preparedness and response.’

This body has met on numerous occasions and published an interim report late in 2022.

At the time of its establishment, I bemoaned the fact that yet again who was missing from the table? – the social care delivery sector. How can we possibly identify risk and embed lessons unless those most impacted are present? With due respect to the distinguished scientists, clinicians, medics and academics – they are the same groups of individuals (in some cases literally so) who were engaged in the planning processes which Hallett has highlighted as inadequate.

Sadly, I am convinced that we are less prepared in Scotland to deal with a pandemic in the future than we even were in 2020 – and I know I am not alone in that analysis. I say so because amongst other reasons if frontline social care delivery voices are not present at the table, the voices of those who support and care for our older citizens and people who require care and support, and indeed informal carers and those supported individuals themselves, then we are only ever going to get part of the picture and at a distance. We are walking blindly but even more shamefully deliberately into a new chaos.

Hallett’s insights must be fully heard and at their core is the critical engagement and involvement of all not least the social care sector and avoidance of the dominance of the usual suspects and exclusionary governmental practice in planning and resilience – a theme which I have no doubt will become repetitive in all her future reports. Partnership does not happen by proxy it requires presence.

The second area I want to reflect on was my attendance at two meetings to contribute to the surge and winter planning process in Scotland.

Last October in a blog I bemoaned the fact that the third and independent sector had not been included in the planning for the Scottish Government Winter Plan. Positively at least someone has heard and in the week that has passed I have attended a deep dive with colleagues and also a fuller meeting which Scottish Government hosted with a range of providers and stakeholders from the care home and homecare sector. Listening and a desire to include was certainly present albeit that we still have concerns that the planning is premised on a myopic concentration on issues relating to the acute NHS sector such as delayed discharge and avoidable admissions, rather than the critical issues facing the social care sector. But credit where it is due, and I hope Scottish Government and most importantly Ministers will listen to the constructive contributions from the third and independent sector as we approach winter and periods of ‘surge’. Real partnership certainly involves listening but it requires hearing resulting in action rather than avoidance.

The reason why such listening and partnership working is all the more urgent as we prepare for winter was laid bare on Thursday.

On that day a report from the Audit Commission was published. I have read many a report from the Commission and its sister body Audit Scotland over the years, but few have been as direct and damning as this one. It is an exploration of the financial robustness of Scotland’s Integration Joint Boards and the fiscal working behind our integrated health and social care partnerships. Its sections review the workforce, commissioning and performance. It makes it clear that community health and social care face rising unmet need and that ‘managing the crisis is taking priority over prevention due to the multiple pressures facing the bodies providing these services.’

Its findings resonant strongly with the experience of social care providers in care home and homecare services across Scotland around which I have often commented in this blog.

We particularly recognise the analysis which highlights that the workforce is under immense pressure, and organisations are facing acute challenges of recruiting and retaining staff.

The experience of constricted budgets, the demand to make savings and the consequential impact this has had on the ability of citizens to access necessary care and support are all mirrored in the report’s findings.

The Report rightly illustrates the way in which private and third sector providers find that council commissioning rates are insufficient to deliver social care and support and residential, personal and nursing care, and pay expenses such as staff, training and overheads.

The social care sector in Scotland is in a deep and unsustainable crisis, and this Report highlights why that is the case.

More positively the Report contains some case studies which evidence innovative and more effective ways of commissioning and procuring services, even in straightened economic circumstances. To name but two the Granite Care Consortium and the Fife Care Collaborative show how we can do things better.  What these new ways of working have in common is an emphasis on trust-built relationships, all professionals listening to one another, and all stakeholders actively involved in sharing mutual priorities.

The time ahs long passed whether in pandemic planning, winter preparation or the actual day to day delivery of social care in an integrated system for us to play at partnership and conjure up the illusion of collaboration. We urgently need to remove the shackles of self-interest and defensiveness, move away from the ‘it’s aye been done like this’ mantras and to seriously roll up our sleeves and work together for all the citizens of Scotland.

That only happens when the third and independent sectors and their representatives are in the room, at the table and empowered to contribute, rather than being kept outside.

Unless we all get around the table and spend as much time working together rather than seeking to cut an already vulnerable social care sector and its services to the bone, we will continue collectively to fail our citizens.

As the advocate and author Helen Keller once wrote: : “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Donald Macaskill

Samaritans Awareness Day is on 24 July and the following day sees National Schizophrenia Awareness Day. These are two important days in the mental health and awareness calendar and come at a time when the issues of mental health and wellbeing are more prominent than ever.

Samaritans Awareness Day continues their focus on a campaign which has been running for 8 years. The ‘Talk To Us’ campaign aims to highlight the charity’s work and the help it can offer. With events being held throughout July by the Samaritans the aim is to highlight the organisation’s availability at any time of day or night to listen to anyone who is struggling to cope. According to Mind, one in every four people in the UK suffers from a mental health condition each year. Those who are experiencing challenges or discomfort have somewhere to turn in the Samaritans.

National Schizophrenia Awareness Day aims to shine a light on the everyday challenges the millions of people living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia face and how we can tackle the stigma and discrimination around it. It is estimated that one in 100 people will experience schizophrenia. Despite being so common, the stigma surrounding schizophrenia remains stubbornly high due to a lack of understanding.

‘Schizophrenia is a very complex condition that can affect how a person thinks, feels, and experiences the world around them. While the word is made up of schizo (to split) and phrene (the mind), schizophrenia does not mean split personality.

People with a diagnosis of schizophrenia can often experience very different symptoms, including audio hallucinations (hearing voices), delusions, disorganised thinking and changes in body language or emotions.’

I have written on a number of occasions about the challenges faced by individuals as they age with life enduring mental health conditions and the lack of support which is targeted at their particular needs. Far from the situation improving over the years I am afraid that the context today as we recognise these two significant mental health days is getting worse not better.

We are faced with some particular and escalating challenges, including increasing demand and resource constraints. It is a given though frequently comes as a shock to some that the population of Scotland is ageing. This means on a demographic level alone that this has led to a higher prevalence of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and dementia among older adults. Indeed, studies indicate that around 10-15% of older adults in Scotland experience depression, and a similar percentage suffer from anxiety. These conditions often go undiagnosed and untreated, as symptoms may be mistakenly attributed to aging or physical health problems. For regular readers you will see a resonance here with my last blog highlighting the rise of alcohol misuse amongst older Scots. Sadly we have also witnessed a concerning increase in the number of suicides among older men in particular. Although suicide rates are generally lower among older adults compared to younger age groups factors such as social isolation, chronic illness, and lack of support can contribute to this increased risk.

In addition, at the present time we are faced with not insignificant staffing shortages in mental health support organisations and amongst providers of social care and mental health support. This is all accentuated by the increasingly restricted resource many support services are working with because of underfunding or indeed because they have lost their funding.

And as if the demographic and practical support challenges were not hard enough, we still witness and have to live with enduring stigma. Regrettably mental health issues in older adults are frequently stigmatised, both within the community and among some healthcare providers. Older adults may feel ashamed or reluctant to seek help due to societal attitudes toward mental illness, particularly in older age groups.

As a result of the lack of specialist focus, lack of investment and stigma many of those working in the field who I speak to will argue that there is significant underdiagnosis. Symptoms of mental illness are still being mistaken for normal aging processes.

The mental health of older adults in Scotland is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires a coordinated and comprehensive holistic response involving all stakeholders including social care providers and families and those most impacted. These have to be approaches of care and support which meet the social, economic, housing and healthcare needs of older Scots.

Sadly, at the moment growing older with mental ill health in Scotland is an experience of isolation, despair and one where you feel you are simply not noticed, that your life does not matter. Just as I stated last week when I speak about alcohol harm, we urgently need all stakeholders to prioritise this harm and to do so in an inclusive prioritised manner.

There are many poets who have spoken about mental health struggles, but few have reflected on them as a lifelong experience into older and what ageing means for mental health. One who has is the late American poet Anne Sexton who wrote The Room of My Life:

Here,
in the room of my life
the objects keep changing.
Ashtrays to cry into,
the suffering brother of the wood walls,
the forty-eight keys of the typewriter
each an eyeball that is never shut,
the books, each a contestant in a beauty contest,
the black chair, a dog coffin made of Naugahyde,
the sockets on the wall
waiting like a cave of bees,
the gold rug
a conversation of heels and toes,
the fireplace
a knife waiting for someone to pick it up,
the sofa, exhausted with the exertion of a whore,
the phone
two flowers taking root in its crotch,
the doors
opening and closing like sea clams,
the lights
poking at me,
lighting up both the soil and the laugh.
The windows,
the starving windows
that drive the trees like nails into my heart.
Each day I feed the world out there
although birds explode
right and left.
I feed the world in here too,
offering the desk puppy biscuits.
However, nothing is just what it seems to be.
My objects dream and wear new costumes,
compelled to, it seems, by all the words in my hands
and the sea that bangs in my throat.

Anne Sexton. “The Room Of My Life.” Family Friend Poems, https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-room-of-my-life-by-anne-sexton

Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash

Donald Macaskill

It was Alcohol Awareness Week at the start of the month and during it I was reading some of the latest research and data on alcohol and older age in Scotland. It was both disturbing and yet sadly predictable.

Across Scotland today one of the hidden harms of alcohol is its impact on the lives of older Scots and their families and the relative lack of specialist social care provision to address that crisis. This growing issue is not only a personal tragedy for those affected but fractures too many families and communities. It is also a harm which as I’ve reflected upon last year in this blog space we still remain poor at calling it out and resourcing the change that’s needed.

Alcoholism among older adults is often overshadowed by other public health concerns. However, the statistics tell a worrying story.

Research indicates that alcohol misuse among those over 65 in Scotland is on the rise, exacerbated by factors such as loneliness, bereavement, and physical health problems. Unlike younger drinkers, older adults often face more severe health consequences from alcohol misuse, making early intervention and support crucial.

Health data indicates that a significant proportion of older adults consume alcohol regularly, with a notable segment drinking more than the recommended guidelines.

The 2022 Scottish Health Survey indicated that 24% of men and 13% of women aged 65-74 drink more than the recommended weekly alcohol limit (14 units per week). For those aged 75 and over, these figures are 16% for men and 8% for women.

In addition, data from the Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland reveals an increasing trend in alcohol-related hospital admissions among older adults. In the past decade, there has been a marked rise in admissions for alcohol-related conditions such as liver disease, falls, and cognitive impairment. ISD Scotland reported that in 2021, there were approximately 2,300 alcohol-related hospital admissions per 100,000 population for those aged 65 and over, a significant increase from previous years.

And further National Records of Scotland recorded 467 alcohol-specific deaths in 2022 among individuals aged 65 and over, an increase of 15% compared to 2021. Statistics show that individuals over 65 have higher alcohol-specific mortality rates compared to younger age groups, reflecting the severe health impacts of prolonged alcohol misuse.

Older adults struggling with alcoholism face a unique set of challenges. Physiologically, the aging body is less capable of metabolising alcohol, increasing vulnerability to its effects. This can lead to a range of health issues, including liver disease, cardiovascular problems, and cognitive decline. Moreover, alcohol can interact dangerously with medications commonly prescribed to older adults, compounding health risks.

Socially, older adults may experience isolation and loneliness, which can drive them to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. I’ve known too many times where the loss of a spouse, or retirement, or relocation has led to folks turning to the drink in older age. All this can sever social ties, leaving individuals even more vulnerable and the stigma associated with alcoholism can further isolate them, making it difficult to seek help.

The rise of alcoholism among older adults has profound implications for social care in Scotland. More and more frontline workers especially in homecare are telling of noticing an increase in alcohol addiction. They are often the first to notice the signs of alcohol misuse, such as frequent falls, memory lapses, or neglect of personal hygiene. However, recognising these signs can be challenging, as they are often attributed to aging itself rather than alcohol use.

Care providers face the complex task of managing the immediate health needs of these individuals while also addressing the underlying issue of alcoholism. This dual challenge requires a nuanced approach that combines clinical care with psychological and social support. In other words, the response has to have social care at its heart.

The data underscores the growing need for targeted interventions to address alcohol misuse among older adults. The current system is stretched to a point that it struggles with the majority and is failing to pick up this growing demographic and their acute needs.

Social care providers must be equipped with the knowledge and resources to identify and manage alcohol-related issues effectively. Investment at this level will support preventative work and will thus reduce the growing pressures on hospitals and residential care settings.

However, social care workers require specialised training to effectively support older adults with alcoholism. This includes understanding the signs of alcohol misuse, managing withdrawal symptoms, and providing compassionate, non-judgmental care. Without adequate training and resources, care providers will struggle to meet the complex needs of this population.

Addressing alcoholism among older adults in Scotland I believe requires a multifaceted approach, including:

Awareness and Education: raising awareness about the issue is the first step. This includes educating the public, care providers, and policymakers about the signs of alcohol misuse in older adults and the unique challenges they face.

 Integrated Care Models: developing integrated care models that combine medical, psychological, and social care support is essential. This holistic approach can ensure that older adults receive comprehensive care tailored to their specific needs.

Community Support: strengthening community support networks can help reduce isolation and provide older adults with the social connections they need to combat loneliness. Yet sadly we are cutting back and defunding these programmes at a time of real need and acuity. Community programmes that offer social activities, peer support, and outreach can play a crucial role in prevention and early intervention.

Policy and Funding: it’s perhaps stating the obvious but national and local government in Scotland must prioritise funding for programmes and models that address alcohol misuse among older adults. This includes investing in training for social care workers and expanding access to treatment and support services.

Alcoholism among older adults in Scotland is a pressing issue that demands our collective attention and action.

The data on alcohol misuse among those over 65 in Scotland paints a concerning picture of a hidden crisis that requires urgent attention. By acknowledging the prevalence and impact of this issue, we can better support our older population through targeted interventions, comprehensive care models, and robust community support. Addressing this challenge is not only a matter of health but also of dignity and quality of life for our older citizens.

It is a challenge that intersects with the very heart of social care, impacting both those who suffer from alcohol misuse and the professionals who support them.

Let us not turn a blind eye to this issue. Let us confront it with compassion, understanding, and a commitment to creating a social care system that supports every individual, at every stage of life.

Donald Macaskill

Photo by Thomas Picauly on Unsplash

Whether it’s Efcharisto, Danke, Gracias, Merci, Takk or simply thank you – wherever those who can and choose to travel or holiday this summer doubtless most of us will learn the basics of communication in the native language of the place we find ourselves in.

Saying thank you to show gratitude is an important part of etiquette in almost all cultures. Whilst manners might change and customs will divert there remains a truth that learning the vocabulary of gratitude is the first step to properly showing your appreciation in a new community.

I think the same can be said of the busy world of social care. Amidst the daily routines and pressing challenges, there lies a profound yet often overlooked practice: saying “thank you.” These two simple words carry immense weight, embodying gratitude and recognition, fostering a culture of appreciation that is vital for both care and support workers and those they support.

Saying thank you might sometimes feel like an afterthought, a perfunctory nod to social etiquette. Yet, these words carry an astonishing power. In my years of working in social care and beyond, I’ve seen firsthand the profound impact that genuine gratitude can have on individuals, relationships, and communities.

At its core, social care is about human connection. It’s about seeing the person behind the condition, label or stigma; it’s about understanding their stories, their struggles, and their triumphs. In such an environment, gratitude is more than just a courtesy; it is a cornerstone of human dignity and respect.

For social care workers, the role they play is both physically demanding and emotionally taxing. They provide support, comfort, and companionship to individuals who often face significant challenges.

This work can be deeply rewarding, yet it can also lead to burnout if not balanced with adequate support and recognition. The central focus of that recognition has to be the continued struggle to give people adequate terms and conditions – and I hope all governments and organisations will heed the criticality of improved pay for the social care workforce as the primary mark of saying thank you!

However wider acknowledgment of the work of a carer is crucial for individual mental health and job satisfaction.

The act of expressing thanks does not just benefit the recipient; it also positively affects the giver. Research shows that practicing gratitude can enhance well-being, reduce stress, and increase overall happiness. In a field as challenging as social care, where the emotional demands are high, cultivating gratitude can serve as a buffer against burnout and compassion fatigue. This is true at all levels of organisations and communities.

For gratitude is not just a social nicety; it is a fundamental human need. Philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual leaders have long extolled the virtues of gratitude, recognising it as a cornerstone of human well-being. Saying “thank you” acknowledges the efforts of others, affirming their value and fostering a sense of connection and mutual regard.

In social care, where the heart of the work lies in human connection, saying “thank you” is more than good manners—it’s a vital practice that sustains the spirit and dedication of caregivers. It strengthens relationships, builds trust, and fosters a culture of mutual respect and appreciation.

In our increasingly disconnected society, where digital interactions often replace face-to-face encounters, expressing thanks has never been more crucial. It bridges the gap between us, reminding us of our shared humanity and interdependence.

So I’m pleased that Thank You Day is returning tomorrow.

Thank You Day began with a handful of organisations looking for a way to enable us all to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone and everything that helped us through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then the campaign has grown to include hundreds of partners and over 20 million people have taken part in Thank You Day celebrations. Last year 74% of those who took part in a Thank You Day event said they felt a stronger sense of belonging to their local community as a result.

The celebrations this year are focusing on giving thanks to our local communities.

At their heart is the act of gratitude which creates and nurtures the wellbeing both of individuals and communities and not least those who require care and support.

Two simple words – thank you – a powerful act that can transform our interactions and relationships. It is a small gesture with a huge impact, fostering a culture of appreciation and respect.

I hope you have a summer where you are able to both receive and give thanks.

Donald Macaskill

I first knew Jane when we were both in our early twenties. She and her husband had just suffered a bereavement. Their little girl had contracted meningitis and had died within hours of reaching hospital. They were both devastated, searching for sense through the darkness of their despair; looking for any answer to the thousands of questions they had, all of their conversation tumbling out from their tears and sobs. I was there to listen and be present and to help them as much as I could.

I remember so many of those conversations with folks who had suffered the death of a child or baby – even if I’ve forgotten the names involved – or in truth I remember the feelings I was left with rather than the words. Feelings of utter uselessness in the presence of another’s brokenness.

I met Jane again years later and maybe understandably I didn’t recognise her at first. We had both changed, and we were not the people we were once. One thing she said though has stayed with me ever since. We talked about that first time we had met and about her little girl. Jane said to me “I’ve held her inside every step of the way.”

She told me of how it was really hard to go back home, the emptiness she felt and her desperation not to let go of anything belonging to her daughter – almost she said as if throwing anything away would be an act of betrayal. She told me how she’d visited the grave every day – how she just wanted to continue being a mum; she shared very openly about her attempts to hurt and harm herself because she simply wanted to be with her daughter.

All of this led to the breakdown of her marriage as her partner in her own words gave her ultimatum upon ultimatum as he tried ‘to drag her back into living.’

Then over time she said things started to change. Slowly at first – small steps but important ones. She started working again after 3 years; she began to go out and reconnect with friends; she reduced the time she spent at the grave and on some days chose not to go. She then after a while started dating and met someone.

As she told me of her marriage, of the birth of a son, of his first day at school, of his growing into a man and his graduation, after every story of her growing family and ageing self she said that at every moment of memory that she had held her wee girl inside her every step of the way.

I thought of Jane and her life of unforgetting love when I discovered that next Wednesday 3rd July that it is to be National Bereaved Parents Day.

The day was set up four years ago by the charity A Child of Mine, after they realised that there wasn’t a specific day that honoured bereaved parents from all walks of life. In their words:

‘National Bereaved Parents Day brings together anyone affected by the death of a child to show bereaved parents that they are not alone. This year’s theme is “Love Lives On”.

And how true that statement was and is for Jane.

Over the years I have been privileged to have spent time with people who have been bereaved and each and every encounter has been special. But I have found that the impact of the death of a child on parents has been one of the hardest of all experiences. It is a loss that lives with the parents throughout their time. It doesn’t diminish it just changes.

But what especially saddens me are the countless folks I have talked to in late and older age who are still mourning for a lost child or baby. It saddens me not because they are mourning or grieving but because in years gone by their loss was never validated, often ignored and rarely understood. Thankfully things have improved but I’m not wholly convinced that society doesn’t still expect us to speedily ‘ get over it.’ I’m not convinced that we are not still in a situation where it’s assumed that in your eighties or nineties that the grief for a child dead for decades should now be passed and forgotten. I’ve met too many in care home and community who have never had the chance to grieve and mourn, who have never been enabled to say a proper goodbye.

The death of a child remains with parents for ever – the love does not diminish. We all of us need to be much more aware and sensitive to the particular impacts of such bereavement. In fact in older age, it is often the case that parents may experience a resurgence of grief, particularly during milestones such as anniversaries or what would have been significant birthdays. As others see their children grow into adulthood and milestones like marriage or grandchildren arrive the painful longevity of grief touches ever sharper.

Older adults have often talked to me not least of the child who has died was an only child of how alone they feel as they age. Many older people as they age often face a shrinking social circle due to the deaths of peers or reduced mobility. But the absence of their child can amplify feelings of loneliness and isolation. Without their child to share memories with or support them, parents may struggle with a profound sense of emptiness.

I’d also want to highlight that parents can lose their child at any age and all that I’ve said about grief is as valid for the loss of an adult child as much as for a younger child. But added to the grieving is the possibility that if the deceased child had their own children, grandparents may take on the dual role of supporting their grandchildren while navigating their own grief. This responsibility can be emotionally and physically taxing, especially as they age, impacting their ability to cope and their overall well-being.

Every step of the way, every moment we age, every occasion and memento moment Jane and others will carry their child deep inside their heart. They will never be forgotten; the fracture will never truly heal. Love lives on even if its rhythm alters.

As a society I think we must do more to understand and acknowledge the particular aspects of losing a child at any age both for the parents and for others. We too need to find ways in which collectively and as communities we learn to carry the memory of those who are departed as we age together.

I leave you with a beautiful poem for all ages by the American animator and songwriter Rebecca Sugar called Time Adventure.

‘Time is an illusion that helps things make sense

So we are always living in the present tense

It seems unforgiving when a good thing ends

But you and I will always be back then

You and I will always be back then

If there was some amazing force outside of time

To take us back to where we were

And hang each moment up like pictures on the wall

Inside a billion tiny frames so that we could see it all, all, all

It would look like: will happen, happening, happened

Will happen, happening, happened

And there we are again and again

Cause you and I will always be back then

You and I will always be back then’

Donald Macaskill

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Yesterday I was pleased to take part in a Royal Society of Edinburgh session on the challenges facing those who live in rural and remote parts of Scotland as they relate to health and social care delivery. As part of the ‘Islands, past, present and future’ event series it was an attempt to spotlight the stories of Scotland’s Island communities, looking back, taking stock, and imagining the future.

The remote and rural parts of Scotland, not least our island communities, face many of the same challenges which social care provision is experiencing in other parts of Scotland but are doing so with an intensity and immediacy which may not be wholly evident elsewhere. But they also I believe have the capacity and ability to mirror and illustrate for the rest of us some of the pragmatic solutions and potentials for change which we all need to reflect upon and consider into our future.

So what are the challenges and issues?

Geography

Stating the obvious the first and foremost is geography. I am mindful that you define remoteness from where you are – and that it is a very subjective concept. This geographical remoteness impacts on the experience of people who might want to access services but also on organisations who might be willing to provide these. There are fewer services and supports available, reducing the importance of choice and personal control, and also making access to some services challenging because of the sheer distance. I think in particular of the huge number of care homes which have closed in my own island community of Skye where about 20 years ago there were well over a dozen and now only a handful.

A key additional factor both in terms of physically getting to care services and also as it impacts on the ability of staff is the issue of transport or perhaps more the lack of robust co-ordinated public transport together with the cost of self-transport in terms of fuel etc.

Workforce

A related major challenge facing providers is the availability of a skilled workforce. Even without mentioning the ‘B’ word and the hugely damaging impacts of Brexit on rural social care workforce recruitment, it was still immensely difficult for rural and remote provision to attract an available workforce. This is for a huge number of reasons, isolation, lack of support, availability of social housing, cost of living and so on. As hospitality and retail have become more attractive especially during what increasingly feels like a ‘whole year tourist season’ then it has become really hard to sustain workforce levels in social care. So what provdiers end up doing is using agency staff. The exorbitant cost of this emergency provision soon becomes unsustainable.

Since 2022 and the introduction of the Social Care Workers Visa there has been a not insignificant increase in inward attraction to both island and rural communities, but the death knell to such positivity has been sounded by the Tory Government’s restriction on dependents of workers here on a visa.

There are other factors which are evident in island and rural communities. One clearly is demographic – I am not the first nor will I be the last to fear what one newspaper called the new ‘Highland Clearances’ – with an increasing trend of younger people leaving island communities and more townships and communities losing the essentials of infrastructure and community. Added to that is the fact that proportionately the population is older and that this increases demand at a very time when that demand cannot, or it is very difficult to meet. Our islands attract many older individuals who choose the locations in which to retire, and this has and is putting tremendous strain on services when inevitably the ageing process leads to an increased demand.

Increasingly elsewhere when faced with increasing demand, workforce shortage and fiscal challenges both commissioners and providers of social care have turned to technological and digital interventions. Before going much further I would want to declare that I strongly believe such solutions have a place but only alongside humanistic presence and care delivery not as a replacement for and crudely as some sort of cost-saving strategy. But whether it is the increasing use of Ai, of in-house smart devices to monitor acuity and so much more, or simply data and record management, never mind the potential of robotics there are obvious challenges including digital connectivity, technological infrastructure robustness and access, digital poverty and so much more which are potentially faced by island and rural communities.

And of course, the elephant in this island room is economic limitation, lack of investment and the raw reality of rural and island poverty which affects everything not least the availability of social housing – though I was delighted to read this week that the island of Rassay off Skye has after over a decade finally got some more social houses!

Personally, I believe that if our island communities are not just going to maintain themselves in some sort of Celtic aspic then they need focussed and urgent national investment – an Islands Fund! We need social care providers for instance to have a fiscal weighting that enables them to be sustainable in the delivery of services given increased workforce, housing, infrastructure, commodity and related costs.

So the challenges are not insignificant but I also think the potential is equally capable of addressing and overcoming these. Addressing the challenge of social care in island communities requires a multifaceted approach, including improved funding, targeted recruitment and training initiatives, infrastructure development, and the integration of innovative care models. But it can be done and is being done.

Take workforce as an example. NHS Highland is currently funding my own organisation in appointing someone to a post as a Sector Career & Attraction Lead for Care Homes in North Highland. It is a new post yet the post holder Laura Dobinson who comes with a rare blend of sector knowledge but also recruitment and HR skills is working to develop new and innovative approaches to recruit working with local communities to achieve real people into real roles. This is the first post of its kind in Scotland and is already bearing fruit. I hope we will see more of focussed and targeted approaches like this one rather than relying on some of our more traditional methods.

Key to enhancing recruitment has to be a whole system approach – there is no point in having a work ready carer if she or he cannot find a house to come into the island and live in.

But as well as workforce we must look at innovative ways of working. At the heart of this is what already happens in our island communities and that is a degree of integrated and collaborative, whole system working that is the envy of others and is I think the only way forward. Islanders cannot afford the luxury and fantasy of silo working. People who require care and support don’t care a toss about the uniform you wear, the organisational badge you work under, what they want is immediate, professional care and support and a level of continuity, consistency and quality which is the heart of all person-led care and support.

But perhaps we also need to build on the communitarian and co-operative strengths of our island communities, not in a romantic sense but in practical realistic ways.

Communities whether rural, remote or urban, will increasingly have to look after one another more – and as a community is nothing more or less than a collection of individuals – that means we all have and increasingly will have an individual responsibility to ‘be our sister’s keeper’ and look out for one another, care and support one another. Put simply if we do not then no one else will not least given the global ageing, health and care dynamic we will increasingly face.

There are insights and lessons of how we can achieve this all over the world – and if nothing else at least in my experience of having seafarers in the family islanders are the best folks for having an openness to learning from others.

So whether it is the truly integrated and community based approach with care hubs bringing together healthcare, social services, and community support under one roof and so offering a holistic approach to care and improving coordination between services as has been successfully operated for some time in Tasmania, Australia, or the model in New Zealand where the government offers scholarships and incentives for healthcare and social care professionals to work in remote and island communities, and financially fosters a locally trained and dedicated workforce.

There are global insights to learn from. And one I have got to know is a new community-based approach to working developed by Dr Emi Kiyota who I have been privileged to know and work with.  Emi is an environmental gerontologist. She has taught and published across the world but most of her work is in East Asia, especially Singapore, Japan and the Philippines. She established an organisation called Ibasho and developed a model for delivering care and support led by older people themselves in rural and island communities.

‘Ibasho means “a place where you can feel like yourself” in Japanese.

As Emi says: ‘At Ibasho we believe this is what every person should have as they age – a place to live in safety, comfort and dignity, where he or she is valued as a person full of history and experience.’

‘Ibasho recognizes that people fear two things as we age — social isolation and losing respect from others in society. Our goal is to create a shared future in which aging is not something to fear, but to enjoy, as a respected and valued member of communities across the globe.’

She often uses a quote she found at an elementary school in Bhutan said:

“The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, the way to be happy is to make other people happy.”

I believe a lot of what Dr Kiyoto is doing resonates with the Scottish Gaelic concept of dùthchas. It’s a complex phrase that is often used in many contexts but for me it’s one of the many words that suggest ‘belonging’ – that sense of being at one and at home amongst a community or in a particular location.

When my mother developed dementia the most important thing for her health and wellbeing was staying in place, amongst people and spaces she knew, and listening to the language and tongue of her youth.

We can and we must develop models of community-based support which nurture such belonging. It is less about resource than about aspiration. It needs to be less about systems and regulations, than relationships and priority.

As Emi said once:

“Elders living in grass huts in Africa with children at their feet are often happier than people in assisted living homes with a chandelier over their heads.”

Donald Macaskill

Photo by Asa Rodger on Unsplash

I have had some challenging and hard conversations and encounters in the last few days. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that they have been some of the most difficult conversations I have had in many a while. In reflecting at the end of the week on each of them I cannot but conclude that there was a common thread running through the experience of the folks who shared their stories and insights with me – and that was the fact that each of the people were experiencing trauma.

My first conversation was with the manager of a care at home service who informed me that officials at his local Health and Social Care Partnership had told him that they required to make substantial budget savings and because of that they would be reducing the number of packages of care at home which would be available for him to put his name forward for. He reflected that for the council contract staff that this was just about budgets, and finance and numbers but for him it was a change which put the sustainability of his very organisation into question. And that ‘turned his blood cold’ in his own words because he had been in business for nearly two decades, providing what was considered to be high quality care (according to the Inspectorate) and that he had employed a loyal, dedicated and professional staff. He was hyper-anxious when I spoke to him about the limited options he had available; he was desperate to keep things going not only because he was a key local employer in an area where there were few but critically because what broke his heart was the thought of telling customers and staff that things were going to have to change – dramatically. He was in every sense traumatised by what he saw as a short-sighted decision to make savage cuts to local social care and support. He wasn’t sleeping, felt manic, his blood-pressure was through the roof, and he had an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.

My second conversation was with a frontline care worker whose homecare organisation had like so many in the last few weeks been told by their HSCP that cuts were having to be made. However, in this case the organisation would keep going because it was in an area where the folks were able to buy their care even when the local authority had withdrawn packages of care and support. But the reason the worker was in tears was that she had spent that morning on her round saying goodbye to people she had known for months and in some cases years. She recounted one instance where a lady in her eighties who had declining sight and was virtually housebound had up till then been receiving a daily care and support package but after a ‘review’ this had been cut back by a massive degree. The lost relationship, the friendship, the familiarity and knowledge built up between the pair counted for nothing as the HSCP and its ‘reviewers’ (who had not visited her to tell her of the change) cut her service. The carer was in tears as one by one relationships were fractured not because (in her estimation and professional opinion) the care was no longer needed but that someone, somewhere, had decided it was no longer affordable. She was so very upset… she told me she had been traumatised by her morning.

And in a week which has been the national annual Carers Week with lots of photo opportunities for our politicians, I spoke to the wife of a man who had received care and support for many years because of a degenerative neurological condition. Like hundreds across Scotland, she had been told that her husband’s package of care and support was being reduced ‘after re-assessment’. She was at her wits end as to how she could cope. She was getting frail and older herself and the thought of having to do more for her husband was draining her. She had no family nearby and all her neighbours were either older than her or had their own issues. She desperately needed the support to continue, to get time for herself, to have some respite from caring. Yes, she had an increased allowance, yes she had accessed all the financial support she could, but what she really needed was the daily relief of someone else who knew her husband being present, being there, being for her. Someone else to share her burden and questions and exhaustion. She feels utterly and completely abandoned.

Each of these conversations left a mark on me because it is clear to me in their own way that each person was traumatised and going through trauma because of what was happening in their lives.

I know the response to what I have written will be – especially during an election – to posit understanding and then to cast the blame and responsibility to another – the lack of UK Government funding; the lack of resource from Scottish Government given the level of increased need; the failure of the local decision makers and so on. But to be frank I am tired of the pass the buck mentality and lack of honesty, the failure to own up collectively as a nation, as political leaders, as social care and health leaders, that the system is well and truly broken. And more than that that the decisions to cut care packages, to review and stop, to reduce the number of care beds being occupied or the number of care packages being contracted – all of it has and is traumatising some of the most valuable and vulnerable people in our communities. It is not fair. It is not just. And it is not the Scotland I want to live in.

I am familiar with trauma both as a concept and as a lived reality. We hear a lot of talk in the world of social care about trauma and what has become known as trauma informed practice. Indeed, the latter is now a core element underpinning the latest professional standards from the regulator. More than that Scottish Government guidance states that all social care and related practice should be understood and responded to through a trauma lens.

Trauma can be variously described but a simple definition states that:

“Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as harmful or life threatening. While unique to the individual, generally the experience of trauma can cause lasting adverse effects, limiting the ability to function and achieve mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.”

And our trauma informed practice in social care and social work is that which:

“is an approach to health and care interventions which is grounded in the understanding that trauma exposure can impact an individual’s neurological, biological, psychological and social development.”

Social care practitioners and services know what is required to support those who have been traumatised. At the heart of such attention is their physical, psychological and emotional safety and attempting through all means to prevent re-traumatisation for the person being cared for and supported.

Now I recognise that the concept of trauma and trauma-informed practice is not universally accepted and there does indeed need to be safeguards as brilliantly delineated in the recent work of Mark Smith and Sebastian Monteux who have suggested caution in its application ‘lest a  predominant focus on trauma may construct the kind of psychological conditions it professes to respond to.’

But at a very human level what is happening in Scotland to our social care services and supports at this time is resulting in very real trauma, harm and suffering.  Perversely those charged with fostering the delivery of compassionate trauma informed practical care and support are now the agents of re-traumatising a damaged and vulnerable citizenhood.

For the staff and managers I have spoken to there is clear evidence of the trauma they are experiencing resulting in burnout, emotional and compassion fatigue; they are being overwhelmed by resource limitations which are resulting in very acute conflicted values. This level of chronic stress is leading to exhaustion, anxiety, depression and acute self-doubt. It is also for many resulting in what I can only describe as vicarious trauma where the trauma experiences of supported people and those being cared for create a sense of vulnerability and helplessness in the worker and manager.

We urgently need to address the reality which is a traumatised social care system, workforce and those who require social care supports. We cannot continue to do more harm in the name of fiscal and resource re-allocation and prioritisation. There has to be a more honest way of addressing the crisis of social care in Scotland than traumatising those who deliver, work in and use our services.

Donald Macaskill

 

After many requests from not a few the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray addressed the Scottish Parliament this past week in a speech during which he outlined a vision for health and social care. In his speech he said that:

“I have already outlined to my Cabinet colleagues an overarching vision which will guide our work.

This vision is one with which no one here could argue: a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.

This vision is supported by four key areas of work: improving population health, a focus on prevention and early intervention, providing quality services, and maximising access, with all of these underpinned by giving due consideration to the people at the heart of those services.

In the short term we must ensure that our services are delivered in the best way we can within our current arrangements, and in the medium term, we need to begin to transform how we work.

And we must keep our eyes on the horizon, because in the longer term we also need to fundamentally change how we think about the delivery of health and care, driving investment in prevention and early intervention.”

I hardly need to say that those of us who deliver and work in the independent social care sector look forward to being invited to play our part in the shaping of this vision into reality in the short, medium and long term. I very much hope that the stated Expert Reference Group will include those organisations who provide most of the social care delivery because without their expertise then any venture will fail.

Few could disagree with Mr Gray’s vision ‘of a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.’ Yet sadly the reality is increasingly one which is quite the opposite and is likely to worsen before it improves.

I was also pleased to hear in the speech the emphasis upon prevention and supporting and caring for people close to their own home. Of this the speech stated:

“This will be underpinned by the principles of accessibility, addressing health inequalities, maximising outcomes, and promoting innovation as well as value for money.”

It was also refreshing to hear of an emphasis on the game-changing nature of technologies – and indeed the social care sector in Scotland is world-leading in the use of such technologies such as wearables, the IOT, Ai and robotics which enable independence and citizen control, albeit that its successes are probably better known outside Scotland than within.

I was reflecting on all this potential for a vision and practical change when I attended a couple of days later the impact and celebratory event of the Leading Digital Transformation in Health and Care for Scotland MSc programme run by the Usher Institute of Edinburgh University in collaboration with NHS Education Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Now into the start of its second year the participants on the programme have been exploring a wide range of topics, ‘from fundamental leadership concerns such as communication and change management, to current critical challenges of the digital age such as systems, interoperability and data sharing.’ It was refreshing to hear some of the 40 plus participants talk openly about how they are tackling real world issues facing those of us in Scotland who access our health and care systems.

It was also inspiring to hear inputs which argued that we need to stop talking about technology as tomorrow’s solution and to grasp the fast-moving pace and reality of innovation which is already making a difference to the health and wellbeing of people – if only we can maximise that potential in Scotland. Sadly I suspect we too often cogitate, ruminate and discuss rather than create, embed and commence.

We have so much we can do better and need to do urgently and in no small way at the heart of our health and social care inequalities in Scotland is the health of men and boys. On Monday (10^th June) we start the annual Men’s Health Week which is an event organised by the Men’s Health Forum. Like the Cabinet Secretary’s vision its aim is very much focussed on preventative health and to encourage men to gain the courage to tackle their issues.

We often talk and reflect on health inequalities in Scotland but surely one of the most primary ones is the fact that one man in five dies before the age of 65 and chiefly from preventable conditions.

So in the coming week there is a focus on prostate health. The week is to be called Let’s Talk Prostates (And Everything Else Men’s Health!) As the organisers state:

“Men don’t talk, we’re told. So, for Men’s Health Week 2024 we’re encouraging men to share their stories.

We’re taking our lead from King Charles who, earlier this year, shared that he had a problem with an enlarged prostate. On the day after his announcement, there were 16,410 visits to the relevant National Health Service website page compared with 1,414 visits the previous day. Prostate Cancer UK saw an almost doubling in the number of users of its online risk checker.

This goes to show the difference that honest sharing can make. Most of us won’t have same impact as the King – for a while in the UK media, it was difficult to avoid urologists talking about the prostate and the things that can go wrong with it – but if there is a taboo about men’s talking, well, the best way to beat a taboo is to ignore it.”

I cannot but reflect on how important it is that the three strands of my week just past  combine – a renewed emphasis on preventative health and social care which focusses on where we are; a practical adventurous use of technology to support our wellbeing and a focus on health inequalities, which for the next week at least is upon men and boys.

Men tend to respond well to health programmes that incorporate digital or technological elements, and yet so little of our actual delivery of healthcare, of public health education, of social care delivery utilises the benefits of technology and digital.

We must get better at reaping the benefits of technologies and digital interventions which appeal to men for many reasons but including because they are more accessible and convenient, because they enable engagement and interactivity, and which can be truly personalised to the individual rather than to treat us as a group of individuals.

We have to utilise the benefits which technology give to us in terms of the delivery of health and clinical and care interventions. Digital and technology are not just offering us tools to inform, increase awareness and knowledge, but also to treat, cure and care.

I look forward to contributing to an emerging vision of health and social care which addresses inequalities, but I am increasingly convinced it has to work in close partnership and collaboration with the technological, digital and Ai communities which are already working to effectively improve our wellbeing both individually and societally, and which have I would suggest to date been untapped in their potential to challenge health and social inequalities.

Donald Macaskill

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash

 

They seek him here, they seek him there

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere

Is he in heaven or is he in hell?

That damned elusive Pimpernel

Famous words from Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s The Scarlett Pimpernel which described the heroic elusiveness of the main character as he managed rescue upon rescue of captured prisoners during the French Revolution.

Being elusive is the heart of the success of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It was a thought that came to mind this week as I reflected two weeks into the campaigning for the United Kingdom General Election about the prominence or maybe more accurately the absence of social care within the election. Now I fully recognise that social care is a devolved matter and that it’s delivery in the Scottish context is obviously the responsibility of the Scottish Government and concerns about it belong to debates amongst Scottish political parties. However, I think the nature of the fiscal relationship between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government is such that whatever is discussed and decided about social care in England does have an impact in Scotland not least of which is any increased financial priority and spend.

So, what has been happening south of the border and indeed across the United Kingdom with regards to social care? Well like the Scarlet Pimpernel I seek some knowledge here,  I seek some knowledge there but the damn elusive social care seems nowhere. Not a mention not a whisper.

Writing in the Independent a couple of days ago Kate McCann said that social care was the issue that Sunak and Starmer won’t touch with a barge pole. Of social care she wrote that it was:

“currently the biggest electoral elephant in the room. It’s no surprise that neither of the main parties wants to touch this policy with a barge pole, after Theresa May tried and found herself tied to the drag-anchor of the dementia tax in 2017 – leading to that now-famous “nothing has changed” moment.”

…

“Problems with the social care workforce have fed into questions about immigration policy. A lack of available care places in the community means hospitals end up caring for people who are medically fit but unable to leave, clogging up admissions at the other end.”

Yet no commitment from Labour’s Wes Streeting to either social care reform or on the Dilnot proposals. Even greater silence from Labour on the impact of immigration on social care workforce sustainability. Only the Lib Dems seem to be actually talking about social care.

As McCann rightly observes of the two main parties:

“Neither is likely to propose wholescale change of the kind for which experts in the sector are calling, demonstrating a lack of ambition from both Labour and the Tories on this issue. There are clear reasons for this – not least the costs – balanced against the state of the UK economy. But, as political reporters, it makes it even more important to cut through the sales pitches and ask the questions that get to the heart of the problem, otherwise we risk serving voters poorly.”

So what of Scotland – well echoing absent silence here too and missed opportunity.

Last Monday Alzheimer Scotland published a report of the Commission on the Future of Long Term Care in Scotland. Set up in 2022 and chaired by former first minister Henry McLeish, the commission brought together a wide range of voices, including health and social care experts and those with lived experience of dementia. I was pleased to serve on the group.

Over the piece we heard first hand of the challenges facing those living with dementia and the lack of provision to enable people to live independently for as long as possible as well as the critical issues of lack of investment which would enable greater diversity and choice in specialist residential provision.

The report makes 16 key recommendations designed to safeguard and redefine the future of long term care in Scotland.

These include calls for the Scottish Government to:

• urgently work with health and social care partnerships to undertake a full strategic assessment of the provision of long term care facilities and resources in each area,
• establish agreed levels of care home and alternative care model places that should be equally available across Scotland,
• establish a citizens’ assembly to engage across society on the type of alternative approaches to care that people want to access to meet their long term care needs
• and engage in open, honest discourse around the reality of the current cost of care.

In commenting on the report I said that:

“Long term care matters for all of us. The way in which residential and nursing care is delivered today will inevitably change over the years. This report makes clear that people want to have a wider selection of choice about the care they may need and that they want more voice and control.

The Scottish Government urgently needs to prioritise social care and has to create an environment where external investment is able to support providers to innovate and develop new models of care and support.

In addition, the time has long passed for the inequity of people living with dementia having to pay for support and care which are essentially healthcare needs. There is so much that needs to change and no shortage of people wanting to support that change. The ball is well and truly in the hands of Ministers.”

So it’s an election – social care is devolved – will our Scottish Government take up the challenge and introduce fairness into the way we support people living with dementia? Will we properly invest in long term care  and support? Will we pay for a sector fit for the future?

Or like Sunak and Starmer with heads in the sand – will both commitment to and real change for Scotland’s long term care sector be as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel?

Donald Macaskill

Photo by MontyLov on Unsplash

I am writing this in New York City at the end of a week when I have had the privilege of being an accredited participant at the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG). OEWG has met every year over the last 14 years and was established by the United Nations General Assembly because of a growing clamour from some nations who wanted to see the development of an internationally binding legal framework to protect the rights of older persons. This was nothing new – indeed from the earliest years of the UN Argentina and others had continually campaigned for such a Convention to be created. Yet consistently there had been failed attempts to get it off the ground. OEWG was set up to identify whether there were any ‘gaps’ in existing human rights protections. At various points over the last 14 years, it felt it had done its work only to be sent away again to do more … until this week.

This year in a historic moment on Tuesday a decision was taken ‘by consensus’ to put forward a report suggesting that there were gaps which needed to be filled and to offer some solutions including the creation of a new instrument, a Convention. Yesterday it was decided that this decision should be passed to the UN General Assembly session. So significant progress. I was honoured to be part of the week and to have played a small role in the events by addressing the Session on Tuesday morning. Throughout the week I heard moving and passionate speeches from people who evidenced the harrowing harm and abuse that so many older people are suffering across the world, of the economic harm and abandonment of millions more, and of the desire for millions to be allowed their voice and to find their seat at the table of decision-making and government. But I also witnessed the art of political negotiation, international compromise, vacillating excuse, and blatant national self-interest.

At the end of such a momentous week I am left in a reflective mood about whether or not all this matters. Does any of it have any consequence for the experience of older people anywhere never mind in Scotland. And I am reflecting on all this at a time when a UK General Election has just been called during which I really hope that we will have debates and discussions on the experience of older people and most especially the nature of social care.

In short, I really do believe that for the advancement of all older people and their human rights that an International Convention on the Rights of Older Persons is urgently needed (and I hope the Human Rights Council in Geneva will soon start working on it when the General Assembly so instructs). I would argue that this is the case because as citizens of a global world we cannot but be connected to one another. The passionate Argentinian advocate Alex Kalache spoke of a visit to a favella on the edge of Rio where he stood talking to a woman knowing that 800 metres away the houses of the rich and wealthy meant that their residents were likely to live 20 years longer than the residents of the favella. The old woman Nina asked him ‘Do you know where my parents are?’ And he responded, ‘No I don’t.’ and she said ‘They are underneath your feet. We could not afford to bury them elsewhere, we could not afford it – so they are here.’ This sad encounter is indicative of the grinding poverty and socio-economic injustice which faces many older people; from those who lose their properties when they get old, to those who are abandoned by their families and made homeless because they have ceased to be useful and economically contributive. All of this might seems light years away from our lived experience in Scotland, but if there is anything about the Scottish character that is worthy of acclaim, it is our awareness that we are all ‘our brother and sister’s keeper’, we are all linked to one another in a common humanity and co-responsibility.

We could just rest in Scotland, struggle even more for the rights of older Scots, fight to ensure a better social care system, work for a reduction in discrimination and ageism; we could and will continue to campaign for an Older Persons Commissioner and the rights of older persons to be explicitly evident in any new Human Rights Bill; we could and will continue to call out the economic injustices which treat older people less favourably, to highlight the grinding poverty so many of our older Scots endure. But we also I believe have to do more. Putting our own house in order without sorting the mess of the world in which it is set is simply a retreat from responsibility. Human rights matter for all, everywhere and at all times.

In the coming weeks during a General Election political parties of all colours will engage in an appeal to self-interest – that is almost an inevitability of the political struggle and class. But I earnestly hope that we will also be able to ask questions, make challenges, and raise the voice of those not here but with whom we are global citizens, because what we decide and the government we elect makes a difference to them. Sustainability of our planet is not just an ecological question it is a profoundly demographic challenge and as the population of the world ages the way we address that reality matters.

In my speech at the United Nations, I tried to argue that the creation of a Convention certainly would offer protection for the world’s older people (protection and safeguards which are not there) but that just like the UN Charter in 1948 it also offers us potential. It offers us the ability to recognise the inherent dignity which comes with being old, it offers us the ability to celebrate the giftedness of age with all the richness of its diversity and experience, its creativity and contribution. We have to challenge the ageism which suggests that the old are yesterday’s humans and that the future belongs to a younger generation. Such ageism is rife across the globe. I heard this week that even in a document which is being drafted at the UN about the future – there is barely a mention of the old.

The older generation are as much the future as they have been the past. To deny their contribution, their capacity, their inventiveness, their entrepreneurship, is to limit all our futures. I hope in our own General Election we will not witness such stereotypes and stigma but will witness acceptance that the future belongs to us all, old and young alike. I also hope that our own political parties will come out and clearly state that they are in favour of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, so that we affirm our belonging one to the other.

During the week I spent some time getting away from the noise and heat of the debate and discussion, the politics and politicking and I wandered around and found a place in front of a painting which had been gifted to the UN by El Salvador in 2019. It was titled Mi Pueblo by Camilo Minero. Minero was a prominent Salvadoran painter, muralist, and engraver. The colourful painting has two themes, one is peace, represented by the light of the sun and the abundance of the natural world. The second theme is human rights, represented in the faces of children, the labouring hands of workers, and the hopeful look of the population that works for a better future.  All living their lives unimpeded under the guarantee of peace.

That should surely be the aspiration of us all, a world where we can live our lives with no discrimination. I am pleased to leave the UN knowing that the struggle for the rights of all including older people lives on but that it is also one that is worth the fight. For me rights matter today more than ever.

Donald Macaskill