To be concerned wrt the future when there are so many people needing support?

[Jupitersmoonandstars]

Prepared to be told IABU, but since covid, and more especially, the lockdowns, I have noticed how many people need quite a lot of support from outside of their families, and I am becoming increasingly concerned about how we will manage to support so many people now and in the future.
I admit, I was completely astonished at the sheer numbers of people who need assistance to even buy food, so many people who either cannot drive yet dont live close to a supermarket so rely heavily on online deliveries, people who cannot shop alone due to their mental health, people who are too frail to shop, people who are longterm too sick to shop.
There seemed to be so many more people than I expected who were completely dependent on a delivery service and when they couldn't get a slot, were understandably panicking!
People who couldn't get their prescriptions, people who didnt have enough money to buy food and needed to use the services of a food bank, people who couldn't get the medical or therapeutic help they needed. People whose operations and procedures were postponed causing massive amounts of stress and anxiety.
People suffering from serious mental health conditions which impact their day to day lives considerably.

As I read more and more on social media community pages, and forums about how utterly dependent on services so many people are, it began to make me extremely concerned how we, as a society, are going to be able to adequately support people who rely on others, now and into the future.

I began to realise that almost all of the families, friends and neighbours
I know have at least one member of their family who is in great need of support, without which, they would be unable to access supermarkets or medical needs, and this adds up to a huge amount of people overall in the UK.

Am I seeing this from a skewed perspective?

Are there people in your circle who depend on outside support to carry out basic functions?
What can be done to help support these people?
Are we doing enough?

In my family and friends circle, many of us are needed to help support other members of our families, and without that support, life would be incredibly difficult if not impossible for those people.
I'm quite happy to assist my family and friends but should I find myself unable to help, what help is available? What would happen to these people? Am I catastrophising?

YABU There is only a small percentage of people whose health or age prevents them from coping independently and as such, only a small amount of people depend on outside help in order to afford or perform basic tasks to enable them to buy the food and access the medical help amongst other things they need and I dont know anyone in my own circle who is dependent on others to help them to get what they need?

YANBU We are seeing more and more people who need support to afford or perform basic tasks to enable them to get the food/medical help they need amongst other things and not enough is being done to support these people adequately.

The essence of society has always been to care for/support those who needed it.

It is breaking down because inequality is creating circumstances where too many people end up with poor mental & physical health (often preventable) due to poverty. It is driving a gap between sectors of society where there is high need, and where there is less need.

Not in my groups of friends - most are quite healthy and able and don’t need much support.
However I work with teenagers and am quite worried about how they are going to cope and live independently, as we seem to have rising numbers with issues (health - both mental and physical, SEN) which mean they can’t attend school full time and whose parents give them a lot of support. I just don’t know how they are going to cope and get a job in future?
Then there’s all those children we have who are basically carers for their own parents or siblings, or have dysfunctional home lives, which also means they struggle to attend school. I do worry for their futures.

Who is going to be the working population supporting them when they are older and can’t work? I think the pandemic has just highlighted all these issues even more.

It's not that I've never noticed that there are people who need support, I just didnt realise the sheer scale of people who are dependent upon help for the most basic tasks, shopping, food, living independently, mental health support, transport, financial support etc.
I used to believe it was a small minority of people who couldn't function without support, but now I believe the issue to be far larger than I originally thought it was.

Going forward, is it possible to offer everyone who needs help, the support they need?

And if we cant, why not? What can be done?

It's heartwarming to see that communities are coming together to help, but that relies on the goodwill of people. What happens when those people find themselves unable to offer support, possibly through their own ill health or age related limitations?

I am literally terrified of getting old or becoming ill or disabled.

Going by what I'm seeing now, the future looks grim for anyone needing support.

You’re not wrong, but much of the budget on diseases treated by the NHS are caused by lifestyle factors.

The key is health promotion and disease prevention, which we’re really bad at.

So that is healthy eating, exercise and relaxation/ good sleep. Sufficient income to afford the basics. Without these things in place as a society, we will have a population living longer, but in poorer health.

There are no exercise classes locally to me. The local gym is min £100 pcm. Takeaways everywhere. People walking around the park glued to screens. We are sleepwalking into widespread poor health caused by profit seeking companies (food industry, addictive tech).

The answers are there and the NHS is doing what it can eg. Healthier you programme. But it’s a massive mountain to climb and the government needs to take drastic action.

If you want to see a country being bold about the action needed, see Chile, which has placed warning signs on all ultra processed food packaging.

widespread poor health caused by profit seeking companies

@Cocomarine

I live in a large village and was part of a network of volunteers during the first lockdown. I was allocated about 100 houses, and leaflet dropped my number to all, speaking to about 80 of them, explaining the network and letting them know they could call me. I had two calls - and both were from older people who admitted that they didn’t want to bother their own local adult children. One call started off awkwardly - I was calling back, and the visiting adult child answered! And was initially quite affronted, as if I was accusing her of not being their for her mum! The call ended on smoother terms.

My experience was replicated by the network of volunteers - very few were actually needed.

Of course there are people with no-one, but I still think they’re a minority.

I think one of the differences during lockdown, particularly 1 was that there were healthy people available. That includes people on furlough or with less self employed work. Also people wfh who had less commute. Parents may have been struggling with home schooling. The adult children may not be available now as the economy opens up, their own children have activities or they have their own illness including MH issues they may be going to GP after avoiding due to Covid.

NHS and social care spend huge proportion of budget on...

Diabetes and related conditions (over 10% of NHS budget).
Dementia - diet and diabetes are leading causes
Mental health - affective disorders like depression - emerging evidence of the importance of a good gut microbiome to good mental health

So if we can get people eating healthier, that’s a lot of savings right there!

The cost of getting the nation eating healthier would be minuscule compared to treating the diseases caused by poor diets.

YANBU however a lot of people had their needs change during the pandemic.
A lot of people who mightve gone under the radar for certain help due to a working family member, lost that during the pandemic.
A lot of people lost their jobs and businesses which meant they were reliant on financial help, some may have been receiving care from family members who they could no longer see due to the family member posing an additional risk because of Covid.
Others had their conditions deteriorate due to Covid.
I think some families were also just getting by, but during covid things worsened financially. Even if not in the amount of money coming in, but certain bills increased.

Covid was the perfect storm to make the vulnerable seem more reliant on services that they either needed before, or were just scraping by before it got worse.

theconversation.com/i-dont-feel-like-a-person-anymore-the-emotional-side-of-claiming-universal-credit-169116

bylinetimes.com/2021/11/19/sanctions-against-universal-credit-claimants-increase-by-14000-in-three-months/

thepoorsideof.life/2022/01/13/seriously-ill-claimant-died-after-dwp-forced-them-to-leave-hospital-to-make-benefits-claim/

thepoorsideof.life/2022/01/18/where-are-the-missing-long-covid-pip-claimants/

I worry that the NHS will go down the American route and just stop funding diabetic meds. God help those people then!
The sugar tax is a good start as is a focus on healthy living (rather than just medicating) in primary care. Our local GP refers everyone in the obese category to a lifestyle programme.

Honestly humans are social animals - we ALL need support. The fact that some forms of support get devalued in our culture is what's weird. The idea that humans are rational individuals is relatively new in history.

My grandad and his wife died within 6 months of each other a few years back, and required support (mainly shopping/cleaning/lifts) for a couple of years beforehand. They had 3 children and 3 children-in-law. Of all 6, in their 50s, only one was available and that was my mum who retired early due to - surprise - ill health. 4 were still working, 2 of those being the only income for that household, and my mum's brother had COPD (also now dead, at 58).

Growing up, mum's mum didn't need to work, and she was one of the people helping neighbours, friends and relatives as part of her daily routine. That's not a thing now.

@OfstedOffred

The essence of society has always been to care for/support those who needed it.

It is breaking down because inequality is creating circumstances where too many people end up with poor mental & physical health (often preventable) due to poverty. It is driving a gap between sectors of society where there is high need, and where there is less need.

100% agree with this.

@Tootiredallthetime

NHS and social care spend huge proportion of budget on...

Diabetes and related conditions (over 10% of NHS budget).
Dementia - diet and diabetes are leading causes
Mental health - affective disorders like depression - emerging evidence of the importance of a good gut microbiome to good mental health

So if we can get people eating healthier, that’s a lot of savings right there!

The cost of getting the nation eating healthier would be minuscule compared to treating the diseases caused by poor diets.

Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune, it is not caused by diet or lifestyle.

Type 2 has genetic factors at play, not everyone is able to reverse it.

The NHS under a Conservative government refuse to fund type 1 or type 2 diabetes properly. They have immense buying power and it would make sound economic sense to plough money into continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pumps and education.

They will not do this.

The human cost, as well as the cost to the taxpayer, is astronomical.

The fucking tsunami coming down the line when the diabetes epidemic explodes with all the attendant complications (kidney failure, loss of eyesight, cardiovascular) is going to devastate and enrage a lot of people. And will cost a lot of money, directly and indirectly. Much more money than just funding decent bloody care in the first place.

But it was always thus. It's just that the people who took care of people were women, usually older women, who either looked after ageing families or volunteered in their communities.

Now women are working until 68. Women ain't got time for that shit.

My aunt used to live in a rural community and shop for everyone on her street. I have such clear memories of going to the little shop in the village and then once a fortnight to the 'big' supermarket with 8 different shopping bags to get Mrs Forbes' bread and Mr Smith's milk. That's how communities ran, on the unpaid labour of women. My aunt wasn't old at that point by the way, she was in her early 50s but she never really went back to work after her children were born. Today she'd be like me, still working full time.

Now we outsource that and people pay for it. But it's in the govt's interest to make all that work because we don't actually make things anymore. So creating a service economy is vital for the economy. It's another form of industrial revolution, really.

The NHS under a Conservative government refuse to fund type 1 or type 2 diabetes properly. They have immense buying power and it would make sound economic sense to plough money into continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pumps and education.

My type 1 diabetes care has been excellent. And I get a continuous monitor on the NHS.

@Cheekypeach

The NHS under a Conservative government refuse to fund type 1 or type 2 diabetes properly. They have immense buying power and it would make sound economic sense to plough money into continuous glucose monitoring, insulin pumps and education.

My type 1 diabetes care has been excellent. And I get a continuous monitor on the NHS.

A Libre or Dexcom? If you mean Dexcom then you are in a tiny group of people who qualify.

If you mean a Libre, it is a flash monitor and not the same thing as CGM because of the lack of alarms. So for people with hypo unawareness, or if you drop suddenly like a stone for something as incongruous as showering or brushing your teeth like I do - it doesn't solve the problem.

Are more modern forms of Libre available on NHS with alarms now? They weren't when I was last living in the UK.

Neither will integrate with an insulin pump at present.

I had to wait a year and a half to access a pump on the NHS. A year and a half that further damage was accumulating.

My NHS team in London were excellent by the way - but their hands were tied due to lack of funding. I could never get an a1c lower than the 7s at best and racked up load of damage over the course of decades.

A1c now at non diabetic levels thanks to Dexcom and Tandem and Control IQ technology and I thank my lucky stars every day this is possible because it is slowing down my damage.

YANBU. I think much of this is due to people living longer than people previously did, but often having multple health problems that are difficult to cope with, for them and their families. Dementia affects around 50% of the 85+ group, and is a diabolical disease that destroys its victims piece by piece, while making them ever needier and more confused. Also, many premature babies are surviving against the odds, but some of them have multiple health problems and learning difficulties throughout their lives, so need a lot of care and support as they can never be fully indepdendent.

Property prices have risen much faster than earnings, making it much harder for people to get on the property ladder. Meanwhile rents are very high, and fuel prices are rocketing due to rising gas prices globally. The NHS is underfunded but in some ways is like a bottomless pit as no matter how much money is sunk into it, it never seems to be enough. Brexit and Covid have both affected the economy, and impacted on food prices.

It is worrying. All I can suggest is that everybody does their best to support each other through these tough times, and if anybody is aware of a friend, relative or neighbour who needs help and support, then offer any help that you feel able to give. Generally speaking UK residents are in a much stronger position than many people in other parts of the world, we do at least have health and social services (albeit stretched to breaking point) but we are living through strange times and we can't rely on the state to do everything that is required. It's time for our politicans to stop partying and covering each others backs, and to start being honest and realistic about what can be done to fund health and social care, and what sort of tax will be needed to fund it - tax rises are inevitable, no matter how unpopular they will be.

You aren't wrong. for pretty much all of human history most people lived in the same area as their extended family and very rarely did people leave, and befor that we lived in tribes of close family and friends for the most part. This was hie we developed.

Now we live in some single units often miles away from family etc and often barely know our neighbors this is new in human history and the vunereable are not part of the tubes like they used to be. It still happens in other cultures still but. It much in western societies. So no it becomes people's jobs and acts of stranger charity to look after those with additional needs. It's pretty sad but it is what it is. I don't think it will go back to how it was beyond small pockets if individuals

I think the way out of this is through robots and AI. It's a way off yet but it won't be many decades before robots can reliably be trusted to carry out care work, diagnose illnesses, give therapy and fill almost any medical need.

People might not think that is as good as having a network of humans doing the jobs, but there will become a point where robots can do the job more efficiently and without human error.

I think the key is to get robots that look, smell and behave as real people. If they are indistinguishable from the real thing, they will become more acceptable. The current system of having too few resources thinly spread, people getting poor quality of care or not enough of it, can and will be replaced. It will be a phased process of course, it can't happen overnight.

@MorningStarling

I think the way out of this is through robots and AI. It's a way off yet but it won't be many decades before robots can reliably be trusted to carry out care work, diagnose illnesses, give therapy and fill almost any medical need.

People might not think that is as good as having a network of humans doing the jobs, but there will become a point where robots can do the job more efficiently and without human error.

I think the key is to get robots that look, smell and behave as real people. If they are indistinguishable from the real thing, they will become more acceptable. The current system of having too few resources thinly spread, people getting poor quality of care or not enough of it, can and will be replaced. It will be a phased process of course, it can't happen overnight.

This reminds me of the netflix series 'humans'.

I'm not confident that we will see the improvements we need to see.
I fear that more and more people will struggle to cope and the support wont be there to enable them to live a quality of life independently.
How can we maximise our chances of remaining healthy enough, both mentally and physically, in order to avoid needing support that possibly wont be available?

I cannot prevent myself from ageing, despite wishing to, but can I maximise my chances of remaining healthy, or is much of my health down to genes and chance?