Captain Tom Day to help loneliness in the elderly

Yes, I saw that trisher, it was a good idea. Let's hope it continues after Covid.

Anniebach I have been mentioning the word bungalow for years but am resisting moving to anywhere with streets of bungalows as that's where all the old people move to.

There was a programme on the TV where they linked a residential community for older people with a nursery. The children visited and the two groups went on outings together, some of the older people had rarely left the accommodation but enjoyed trips with the children. It was interesting to see the bonds some of them formed.

Most definitely Calistemon , if I may speak of living in accommodation for the elderly from my experience and I am not referring to homes for the elderly.

The daftest idea was building small Cul de sacs with one and two bedroom accommodation in quiet parts of a town.

Never see children going to school or playing, never see able
bodied people walking past with shopping. Just see carers
turning up every day , ambulances at times, nurses, and suddenly an empty bungalow which means the occupier has
died or been moved to a home.

Suppose similar to living in a leper colony.

ALANav

I'm not sure I'd like to live in community housing with a lot of elderly people!

Certainly somewhere more convenient would be welcome as there is a dearth of one-level accommodation in our area but perhaps mixed in with different types of housing.

I’m not in favour. I suppose at 70 I would be classed as elderly but I don’t think of myself as such and I don’t want to be patronised with a special day each year. If the family want to set up a charity in the same way that Esther Rantzen has done, good for them, but I think this idea is very much to get them publicity, potentially ending up with something like Children in Need on tv every year. I don’t dispute that more resources are needed to alleviate poverty, isolation and loneliness amongst older people but an idea like this smacks too much of ‘look at what we’ve done’ and doesn’t recognise the pride of older people in need who don’t want to be considered as ‘charity cases’, the phrase many would use.

I think it is a wonderful idea. Sir Tom was inspirational and he raised a great deal of money for the NHS, and inspired better off people to start giving back, because not alot of them do. This pandemic has brought out the very worst in people and he stands out because he was to caring.

Maybe affordable housing for the elderly with communal facilities would be a better idea ....currently specialist retirement home builders charge a fortune for their apartments, plus exhorbitant charges...if the government addressed this problem more could downsize and have community living. I think Capt Tom and his family are brilliant .......Esther Rantzen is right, a lot of elderly people are lonely ....but then she actually advertises those expensive retirement apartments ....disused hotels which have gone under since the beginning of the Pandemic could be re utilised as retirement housing ...they already have facilities for apartments each with en suite, restaurants, meeting rooms .............

Non-sequitur means it doesn't follow. Anniebach's comment was on topic. Forsythia mentioned people in care homes feeling cut off (isolated) and forgotten (invisible) and 25Avalon (OP) mentioned Captain Tom expressing feelings of invisibility when he lived alone. Anniebach just speculated that, to paraphrase, some people, who've never experienced isolation, may not understand others' feelings of invisibility. If she'd said people who live in groups never feel isolated or invisible, that doesn't follow. They might feel that way. That would be non-sequitur. Just saying...

I will be interested in knowing what this new idea is suppose to do for the elderly that has not been done before.

I think it's supposed to be fundraiser, is it? And perhaps what you have said could be an idea if this type of help has not been widespread previously:
I only wish more elderly folk had learnt how to use a computer or how to use Facetime.
I agree, a relative of mine just was not really interested but I'm sure it would have been so beneficial to her during lockdown.

helgawills

A lot of elderly people, like my 95 year old neighbour, are reluctant to interact with strangers, so it falls on a few neighbours to offer support and company. She has rejected help from age uk. Not at all sure what a day for elderly people would or could achieve

Got to agree with you helgawills.
I am 91 and been in isolation plus I live on my own although severely disabled but having learnt the computer many years ago and having a WW2 website it has made me many cyberfriends worldwide.
Plus I have written books, with all proceeds after printing costs are taken out all going to various charities. It has kept my brain going and kept me in touch with the outside world.
I only wish more elderly folk had learnt how to use a computer or how to use Facetime.
I see and speak to my family every night this way and could also talk to them when in hospital having broken bones in my back when hospitalised during this traumatic pandemic.

I will be interested in knowing what this new idea is suppose to do for the elderly that has not been done before.

But a lot of the criticism Callistemon (for some reason I can't quote your posts) is around the type of fundraising the family is proposing., not of the family themself.

Yet you come on and make a sweeping statement about inverted snobbery as if no one who disagrees with you might have well thought out views and opinions of their own.
That is very rude and dismissive.

I have googled and I'll have to apologise as it wasn't who I thought before her blush but God if you want to instill good in your communities, get rid of useless, self serving MPs (of any party!)

JaneJudge and 25Avalon
Should this be under News and Politics rather than Chat?

Stupid? Not unexpected? Twice?

I've sometimes been accused of being goady by some. I guess we'll let all the posters on here decide who's being goady tonight, eh?

sycophantic?
?

Stupid word to use just because I think something might be a good idea and you don't.

But not unexpected.

Beswitched

Alegrias1

I suspect criticism comes from posters who dislike the family because they are wealthy.
It's inverted snobbery.

Are we not allowed to criticise anybody, just because they are wealthy, without being accused of inverted snobbery? Do you not think there might be other reasons that we have opinions about people? That wealth is completely irrelevant? Or is it just that if certain people fall into the category of offspring of a national treasure then we mustn't be anything other than sycophantic?

Yes I think your post was very unfair Callistemon.

I think all the criticism of the family and what they are trying to do is unfair.

But not unexpected.

I'm sceptical that anyone is going to revolutionise the way people think about ageing.
It's very difficult for some, however people think about it.
I too think that this family are courting publicity, as if they are some sort of authority on growing old, because they had a relative who was in the public eye.
(Probably also bought about by them)

Alegrias1

That's OK JaneJudge.

Just to be clear, I haven't criticised Captain Tom in any way, and I wouldn't.

That's OK JaneJudge.

Just to be clear, I haven't criticised Captain Tom in any way, and I wouldn't.

Good for you. Let’s hope you’re proved 100% correct.

Alegrias1

^I suspect criticism comes from posters who dislike the family because they are wealthy.^
It's inverted snobbery.

Are we not allowed to criticise anybody, just because they are wealthy, without being accused of inverted snobbery? Do you not think there might be other reasons that we have opinions about people? That wealth is completely irrelevant? Or is it just that if certain people fall into the category of offspring of a national treasure then we mustn't be anything other than sycophantic?

Yes I think your post was very unfair Callistemon.

I have googled and I'll have to apologise as it wasn't who I thought before her but God if you want to instill good in your communities, get rid of useless, self serving MPs (of any party!)

I don't agree with you Alegrias though, sorry. I think Captain Tom tried to do good. I think the media love a story like this but I do think the media like naice middle class white families. That doesn't mean we have to take away 'the good' from this though. I'm sure his family loved him and him them and that is all that matters really and he bought joy to a lot of people.

Forsythia

Alegrias1

Lots of genuine interest tonight.

I don't know this lady.

If you are in the public eye, people will form an opinion of you. I might be completely wrong. But the thread was about what we think, and so...

I think people would have a genuine interest in why you form such extreme opinions about a person you’ve never met. Is that charitable?

I'm not here to be charitable.

These are my views. I was asked, I told you.

Thinking that there might be motivations that are not entirely altruistic, but are also not entirely motivated by money, is not extreme. Its an opinion. Opinions can be wrong. But this is the opinion I have formed.

Ah ok. I didn’t know that.

Forsythia

What do you mean Jane?

Well Nadine Dorries has had a safe seat there for how many years and she doesn't even live there or hold a surgery. Before that it was another woman whose name I have forgotten who was of the same ilk

Alegrias1

Lots of genuine interest tonight.

I don't know this lady.

If you are in the public eye, people will form an opinion of you. I might be completely wrong. But the thread was about what we think, and so...

I think people would have a genuine interest in why you form such extreme opinions about a person you’ve never met. Is that charitable?