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WITH VIDEO Michael Parkinson: how my mother's plight drove me to fight for the elderly
LAST time I met Michael Parkinson, only a couple of years ago, he was still the King of Saturday night, with 700-odd chat shows hosted over more than 38 years under his belt.
Talk was of the glittering names he'd lured into a comfy chair, submitting to his genial, gentle brand of probing. He spoke of Cagney, Heston, Mitchum and Bette Davis and the days when stars really were stars.
Since that meeting his life has changed somewhat: he has become Sir Parky and retired from television, for a start. At 74, the miner's son from Barnsley could simply soak up the good life at his home by the Thames in Berkshire, pootling around on a golf course and spending the children's inheritance.
But the work ethic dies hard and life is hardly less less busy these days. He uses the shiny aura that is still very much part of him to cast light on some of the most vulnerable people in society – the elderly and infirm who may not be getting the best of treatment out of our health and care systems.
When former health minister Ivan Lewis asked him to join the Dignity in Care Campaign as national dignity ambassador, Michael Parkinson also had a very personal reason for agreeing to take on the role, which involves working towards improving how the elderly are looked after and advocating a change in society's attitude to its most senior citizens.
"My father died in 1974, so my mother spent a third of her life as a widow," he says. "She was very independent and kept on working, eventually delivering meals on wheels. By the age of 94, she was suffering from dementia and became incontinent. In previous generations, the elderly were looked after at home and died at home, but that wasn't possible and she went into a care home.
"It was then that Mary, my wife, and I gained some understanding of what being in care meant, the good and the bad... which included my mother being patted on the head and called 'dear' or 'love.' Normally, she would have broken the arm of anyone who talked to her like that..."
At other times, the Parkinsons visited Freda and she was dressed in someone else's clothes; one day her face had been painted garishly ("like Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? She looked like a clown, a figure of fun" says Parky). She might not have been aware of what was happening to her, and most of her care may have been fine, but such incidents meant she was not being treated with the respect and dignity that she and others deserved, he says.
Reticent about making complaints, and unwilling to be seen to play on his celebrity, Parkinson left it to the tactful Mary to have a word with staff. "I found the whole thing very difficult and distressing," he says. "You wonder if anything will happen to your loved one if you complain, you don't necessarily know who's responsible for the things you're concerned about, and we British in general are not that good at handling these difficult situations."
Freda died at 96, and when the invitation to campaign for the elderly came Parky's way, the Minister found he was pushing on an open door. Since joining up a year ago, he has been travelling the country, meeting staff who work in the health and care services and users of those services, and speaking at a series of Department of Health-sponsored events about why we should and how we can value and respect older people properly.
Inspired by his lead, 7,000 people have joined him as dignity champions – some are NHS or private sector health or care staff, others are non-specialist volunteers or involved with charities. They're all bending their minds to the situation of the older person in hospital or care who may not have a voice or want to speak up for themselves, and what changes can be made to ensure that all of their needs as a human being are met.
Parkinson says part and parcel of improving how older people are treated when they need care is changing how society as a whole cares about its elderly. The campaign has caused a buzz, he says, and new ideas to improve care of the elderly are being shared online, including simple measures such as placing red napkins on the trays of patients or care home users who have difficulty eating, to draw the attention of passing staff who can stop and help them.
"There is an attitude problem. We see older people either blatantly ignored or treated with contempt, and in the media there is nothing to cater for older people.
"I'm moderately mature myself, and I see nothing on TV that I want to watch, and there's no music on the radio for me, either. It's all part of the same thing."
He's in Yorkshire taking part in an event called Dignity – Who Cares? at which people involved with the health and care of the elderly, including local authority managers and care home staff, are sharing ideas. To the signature tune of BBC1's Thursday night panel current affairs show Question Time, he bounces on to the dais in the role of chairman David Dimbleby and introduces the panel who'll discuss questions from the floor.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope is there, alongside Andrew Harrop from Age Concern and Help the Aged, Karen Jenkins from the public services union UNISON and Dr Inderjit Bhogal, director of the Yorkshire and Humberside Faith Forum.
Although there isn't a dedicated budget set aside for ideas about improving practice which might be generated by the Dignity Campaign, funds can be
applied for, says Phil Hope, who can't be persuaded to give his audience a sneak preview of the Government's forthcoming green paper on tackling the spiralling cost of care for an ageing population.
It's rumoured that the document includes proposals for
compulsory insurance paid throughout a person's working life or a one-off payment of around 12,000 either at retirement or death, and the possible ending of compulsory sale of property to finance care.
All the Minister will say is that the paper is designed to "address the unfairnesses that many people feel exist" and assure us that the Government is "on the case".
Questions to the panel graze over attitudes to age (suggestions from the panel include better training and education of lower-grade health and care staff and better leadership), the elderly in a multi-cultural society (more understanding needed of languages other than English is urged), improving complaints procedures and provision of advocates for patients with dementia.
There is great energy in the room, crammed with 250 delegates who obviously care passionately about the people
they work with. Parky asks Dr Bhogal if he thinks we've gone too far down the road of neglecting our older people to turn the tide, and the answer causes many heads to nod.
"Attitudes towards and treatment of the elderly are declining, even in the Asian community. What we need is to encourage more interaction between generations, more understanding among young people about what it means to be older, and the reintroduction of the word 'honour.' Older people should be treated as guests of honour."
As with the TV version, a soft ball is bowled by the final questioner, who wants to know what makes each of the panel get out of bed in the morning. Once a journalist, always a journalist, the inimitable former chat show star whose rise started at the Barnsley Chronicle, says: "The prospect that things can only get better...."
Many of those who are concerned about the care of the elderly are relying on Parky and friends to make them better.
For information about becoming a Dignity Champion call 0207 972 4007 or sign up online at www.dignityincare. org.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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