Social Worker by profession.Hon Doc. Co-Founder Member of @LLARCoop Been around a while.Speaker/author/agitator/meddler/radio-audio host blah blah.
Joined March 2014
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Before we had data, we had narrative. Before gerontology, we had literature. In my new book I map every older character across six Dickens novels, from Pickwick to Scrooge, asking what they reveal about ageing then and now.
#DickensAndHisOlderPeople #BookLaunch
The Dilnot Commission reported in 2011. The Casey review is underway. Who pays for social care? These aren't technical questions; they're moral ones, and politics keeps choosing delay over clarity. What would courage look like?
#SocialCareReform #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
It was a real treat yesterday to have been invited to the @community_media Festival in London. I was there to speak about @LLARCoop.
Facilitating #OlderAdults to become involved in community radio, podcast ingredients & audio in production, content , hosting & presenting.
For those who attended this Festival, I thought, given Richard's kind promotion of my latest publication #DickensAndHisOlderPeoplr
This is it. I am booked to speak about it on a radio show this week.....happy to entertain any other interested Radio stations!
Our hospitals, care homes, and pension systems were built for a different world, one with shorter lives and closer families. Ageing is chronic, not acute, and our systems still aren't designed for that. What would you redesign first?
#SocialCare #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
So #SocialCare is on the political agenda to be fixed
But what does fix mean?
Funding
Accessibilty
Better wages for workers
FairCare.
The language being used evidences how we think about Care, which
Others
Demeans
Victimises
Socially excludes
No, fixing =
Ageing is not a disease or a failure, it's living. Yet our culture treats it as something to hide or fix. Even Dickens imagined a “green old age” in Gabriel Varden, present, capable, warm. When did we stop believing in that?
#AgeingWell #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
Stories shape what we see, and what we fail to see. Victorian fiction built categories we still use: the deserving old and the undeserving. Which literary portrayal of ageing has stayed with you?
#LiteraryGerontology #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
Dignity in later life begins with security, and security begins with home. Rising costs and shrinking social housing mean too many older people are one crisis from losing theirs. What does home mean to you?
#LaterLife #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
The boundary between health and social care isn't a boundary, it's a maze. Decades of policy have split them by funding and governance, leaving people to repeat their story to strangers. What structural change would you prioritise?
#SocialCare #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
Millions of unpaid carers work around the clock, save the Treasury billions, and remain invisible. I've watched carers burn out and sacrifice careers, only to be told they're “not working.” What would genuine recognition look like?
#Carers #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
Dickens died at 58, yet old age haunted his fiction from the start. My new book asks: was young Dickens gerontophobic? From Pickwick's resilience to Fagin's decay, his characters reveal attitudes to ageing that still feel familiar.
#CharlesDickens #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
We call older people “service users” or “recipients” of care, language that strips away agency. Systems built around this framing do things to people, not with them. What would truly citizen-centred care look like?
#SocialCare #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
We treat ageing as a problem to solve, but the real issue is how we misunderstand it. Societies that honour later life flourish; those that shun it lose memory, perspective, and wisdom. How should we reframe this conversation?
#AgeingWell #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
The Casey review confirms what practitioners have long known: social care is fragmented, underfunded, and failing those it should protect. What would it take to build a system that truly honours dignity in later life? #SocialCareReform #DickensAndHisOlderPeople
No comment needed
Buy the book, you'll not regret it if you are interested in
#Dickens
#Ageism
#VictorianLiterature
#SocialGerontology
@DickensMuseum
@CindySughrue
@DickensFellowHQ
@BASW_UK
@lucindahawksley
@Jeremydixonsw
What did I say about no comment needed?
