Page 24 - OCF Oxfordshire Uncovered

Oxfordshire Uncovered
OLDER PEOPLE
Generally, people are living longer, with more people than ever living beyond 100. This has obvious implications for where people live and who takes care of them. Oxfordshire is distinctive because the rural nature of the county exacerbates access to services, and therefore associated feelings of loneliness.
There are 16,200 over-85s in Oxfordshire – a gure predicted to double by 2030.
In 2011, around a third of over-65s lived alone. Based on current trends, the number of older people living alone could be as many as 50,000 by 2024.
Older people are more likely to live in rural areas of Oxfordshire than other age groups. The proportion of older people living in rural areas (41.5%) is higher than the average (39%). Added to this, IMD analysis shows that the majority of Oxfordshire’s rural areas are among the 20% most deprived in England in terms of geographical barriers to services:
in Oxfordshire are over one hour’s travel time from the nearest hospital, and 41% of pensioner households in Oxfordshire have no access to a car.
Barriers to Housing and Services: Geographical Barriers sub-domain
Deprivation decile: 1=within the most deprived 10% in England, decile 10=least deprived 10%. England average is between deciles 5 & 6.
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TV or pets are the main source of company for half of older people across the UK
Among over-65s living alone in Oxfordshire, over half have a long-term health problem or disability. The transition to living alone in later life (primarily due to the death of a partner) makes them susceptible to psychological distress.
A signi cant number of older people report being limited in their daily activities – nearly half of over-65s and over 80% of over-85s. These proportions can only increase according to the population projections for Oxfordshire. This will present a signi cant challenge for the already-stretched local medical and social services.
In the UK, eight people a day are being buried by their local council after dying with no known friends or relatives
Many of the services required by the older population are provided by local or national government. However, as we have seen in the previous section, the recruitment and retention of medical and social care staff in Oxfordshire can be problematic due to the cost of housing locally.
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10
Number of LSOAs
The map, chart, and table are coloured by deprivation decile. For each
All of this paints a picture of isolated areas where the population
measure of deprivaiton, an area with a decile of 1 is in the most-deprived
is skewed towards older age, with little age diversity and few
10% of areas in England and is shaded red. An area with a decile of 10 is iinftohremleaalsct-odmepmriuvendit1y0c%onofnaercetaisoninsEbnegtlawnedefnorptheiospinledicoaftodrifafnedreisnt
shaded blue.
generations. This is a challenge when 30% of rural households 22