Health and wellbeing needs: Older people

• PHE suggest that there is no agreed definition of older or old people and people differ widely in what they consider to be old. Members of each age band are a very heterogeneous group and age is a very unreliable indicator of state of health or mental or physical capacity of any individual. Ageing can be equated with the onset of health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and respiratory disease as well as heralding increased sensory impairment.
• However, the medicalised premise that successful ageing is purely the avoidance of ill-health is challenged by qualitative studies of older people which consistently asserts that social, spiritual, cultural and artistic outlets are valued far more as indicators to 'good health'. Perceptions of older people and ageing can therefore be inverted and viewed as an asset, pointing to the promoting of programmes that support a framework for such outlets as key features for local commissioning.
• Older people make a huge contribution to the life of their local area through the taxes they pay, contribution to the labour market, their spending as consumers, the contribution they make to childcare and the care of loved ones and friends, as well as through voluntary, political, cultural and community based activity.
• Older people have the opportunity to become critical drivers in economic development and regeneration of South Tyneside if they are given sufficient support to contribute and actively participate in society.
• People aged 65 and over in the UK contributed £61 billion to the economy last year through employment, informal caring and volunteering, according to a new report by Age UK. That's equivalent to 4.6 per cent of gross value added, and six times more than the money spent on social care by local authorities in England.
• The Age UK Chief Economist's report found that £37 billion of the total amount came from employment and £11.4 billion from informal caring. Child care contributed £6.6 billion. Nearly £6 billion came from volunteering.
• For the first time there are now more than eleven million people in the UK aged 65 and over. A growing number of them - more than a million - are working. Although some will be doing so from financial necessity many others want to work for longer because they are in good health and because what they achieve at work is valuable and worthwhile.

Age UK Chief Economist's Report  Spring 2014
Based on analysis of ONS Labour Force Survey,  ONS Annual Survey of Housing and Caring,  ONS Economic Accounts, Understanding Society, Pacey Annual Survey of Child Minding Fees