Fit for better living

 A new company  Mission is to improve lives  Focus is on action  See  We have piloted one to one interventions  Kevin is also treasurer and trustee of International Longevity Centre

“The need to refocus health and care systems..has been recognised but the process of transformation is likely to take some time and has only just begun”

 Median age of population was 25 in 1911 and is now 39  One in six of us now aged over 65  Population aged over 90 now 429,000  In ,640 centenarians and expected to be 160,000 by 2040  Around one third of babies born in 2012 are expected to reach 100 years old  By 2035 expected to be 15.6 million people of State Pension Age  Life expectancy at age 65 is 18.2 years for men and 20.8 years for women

 Healthy life expectancy at birth 63.5 years for men and 65.7 for women  Males at 65 can expect further 10.1 years healthy live and women 11.6 years  Gains in life expectancy have outstripped gains in healthy life expectancy  Gap between social classes has persisted

 3% of people older than 65 live in residential care and a further 1% in housing with care  Estimated to be 6.5 million carers in UK  Care needs are increased for those with health conditions e.g. Dementia costs UK £23 billion in 2008 –and it’s going up and Age UK estimate that £121m could be saved every month if dementia residents were supported to remain at home  Over 3.4 million of over 65s live alone

 NHS affected by changing demographics e.g. winter issues at A&E  Care homes underfunded and suffering from reputational damage  Stress between care (not free) and health (free at point of use)  Changes to care funding still leaves many issues  Recognition that better integration needed but slow to get going  By 2020 national insurance contributions will be less than welfare  SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

 Abundant research proves benefits of exercise in elderly years  CMO guidelines exist for over 65’s  Even minimum exercise gives benefits  E.G. Recent BMJ article says:  “Data from the studies support the idea that health gains can be achieved by people doing less than the recommended amount of physical activity. All but one study shows that somewhat active people had a lower risk of death compared with inactive people”.  But everyone knows this and yet nothing has really changed.  Why this wouldn’t work ?

Integrate health and care  But funding pressures mean no funding for prevention  Many doctors persist in seeing issues as medical not lifestyle  Cost seen as an issue  Hence focus on group activities even though less beneficial

 See our website for case study report  Benefits from pilot programme include:  Improved mobility, wellbeing, confidence, self esteem, social integration  Both in care homes and independent living  Care home managers appreciative of programme

 Average care homes costs £40k per annum  Medical treatments from falls etc also expensive  Filkin implementation will only benefit a minority  So spending £1500 pa to defer or avoid £40kpa good investment if properly targeted  Without policy response will result in more inequalities emerging in healthy life expectancy  And what price dignity and independence?

 Helping care home residents is good  Lots more to help  Even better is helping those still independent  So challenge to local authorities – help us to prove the business case  Share the message – decline is not inevitable and prevention is the right thing to do  Huge challenge for the UK