Why we need to be better at ageing... Julia Neuberger addresses the question of what life will actually be like for us as we get old, and suggests answers for making our later years as good as when we were young. Britain is getting old - and fast. Due to the combination of a decline in birth rates and an increase in life expectancy we are rapidly heading towards a crisis - in health, housing, finance and long-term care. Despite this seismic shift in our demographic makeup, the way we view and treat the old has barely adjusted. It is shocking, for example, that despite less than 1 in 20 British people wanting to reside in a care home in their old age, 1 in 5 die in one. It is time that we examined how we look after ourselves as we age - and address the issues that when young we take for granted as a right, not a privilege.
