Visited the coffee morning at Abbeyfield. Abbeyfield is a sheltered housing complex – but really tries and succeeds to feel like home. It has a lovely atmosphere and many of the residents have their family living very nearby.
The thing that strikes me always, when I visit older residents, is that boredom is the real enemy. Here they have a beautiful lounge area looking out on beautiful gardens from a warm conservatory – and that is a communal area. Many of them go to a Monday club for bingo at a nearby location and Age Concern collects some residents to take them to lunch and activities – and of course families visit often.
So – it brings it home how vital these services are and why we kicked up such a furore when Haringey were considering closing luncheon clubs. Getting out and socialising makes it a proper life.
I talked to lots of the helpers and residents and some ladies who come into the weekly mobility class. In the picture you can see Dorothy K Scales who was born in 1907 – yes she will be 100 on September 18th and she was completely on the ball – beautifully turned out – and very charming (as you can see). Her son kindly invited me to her birthday party!
Lynne Featherstone 
Yes, boredom, but increasingly also no physiotherapy. Physio doesn’t have targets, so it gets its money cut off, I’m told. And where my mother (94) is, they say they cannot even get private physios. A final year physio student that I met says its awful and she’s off to the USA as soon as she graduates, even though she will have to do more exams there. The Lyons Inquiry report uses the inclusive term ‘outcomes’, replacing the oh-so-clumsy target culture. Read it.