This week, Help the Aged have launched their 1 is the saddest number campaign, following research showing a third of older people in the UK live alone - and that one million older people will face this Christmas alone. At the same time, Baroness Julia Neuberger, has called for a 'grey revolution' - including cohousing - to tackle this awful problem. Article below...

In the Independent, Wednesday 29 October 2008

Last Sunday, I went to 'The Big Sing' event organised by the Jewish Community Centre for London. Along with the Jewish Care choir and others, there were the Zimmers, a rock group of people in their eighties and nineties who gave us a rousing rendition that included dancing together, lunging at the audience to a rhythm-filled 'It's My Life', and in general holding us spellbound. The whole event was totally life-enhancing.

The Zimmers were formed after BBC producer Tim Samuels became horrified by how older people were treated. He pulled the group together, and their work scaled the charts. We have plenty of talented and inspirational older people in the UK, but our attitude to them often beggars belief. They are described as "wrinklies", or "bed-blockers", as if it were their fault, whilst questions are asked as to whether they are worth treating. After all, what use are they when they can no longer work and 'contribute?' If they cannot cope at home, we put them in nursing and care homes. Many are excellent, but few allow much self-determination, and residents with Alzheimer's are often drugged up.

We praise medical science for extending our lives, without asking to what purpose and without recognising that living longer will inevitably entail working longer. We will need the income, but we will also need to be needed. Pensions for a growing ageing population will be unaffordable if people retire at 60 or 65 – and the Government is to be criticised for giving in to the CBI and keeping a fixed retirement age. We ought to be retiring later if we are going to live into our nineties.

But, worst of all, we are deeply unimaginative about older people's living arrangements. We have sheltered housing and a bit of assisted living. In the US and much of Europe, they have co-housing – a sort of commune for grown-ups providing mutual support and allowing older people to choose whom they want to live with. It is time we thought differently. We need a grey revolution, and older people will need to recognise that retirement will come at 70 or 75, and that we'll all need to keep working to support each other as we age. And, after all, what is wrong with that?