‘People don’t lose interest in politics when they get old and live in a home’

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/22/older-people-care-home-politics-vote

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Many more older people are likely to vote in next month’s general elections than younger age groups. In 2010, some 76% of people over 65 turned out compared to just 44% of people aged between 18 to 24. But, according to anecdotal evidence from care professionals, when it comes to older people relying on support in the community or living in residential care homes the voting figure drops to under 20%.

It is a problem that has exercised care providers and older people’s charities, some of whom have been running campaigns to register care users ahead of the election and enlisting the support of their more politically engaged members.

“Of course I’m still interested in politics. Do you think people lose interest in the outside world just because they get old and go to a day centre or live in a care home?” asks Beatty Orwell, a 97-year-old from London’s East End, who has become something of a poster-girl for a voting campaign by Jewish Care, which runs the day centre she attends a couple of times a week in Stepney, east London.

“I’ve been interested in politics for around 80 years, ever since I was in the crowd that confronted Mosley’s blackshirts at the Battle of Cable Street back in the 1930s,” says Orwell, who joined the Labour party in the early 1950s.

“Many of the issues then – like immigration, housing and care – are still important today and it makes me sick when people say they won’t be voting. Those of us who have lived through difficult times in the past have some lessons to teach today’s politicians and voters. I told Ed Miliband as much when I met him at a Labour fundraiser recently.”

Beatty stars in a guide produced by Jewish Care that outlines the work the organisation has been doing to ensure that its 650 care home residents, day centre users and home care recipients know about, and can have a say in, next month’s vote. It’s been holding reminiscence sessions and reliving past political issues, as well as informing staff and volunteers of GPs’ roles in establishing clients’ mental “capacity” to vote.

A Question Time session, where would-be MPs were played by staff, volunteers and residents, was followed by parliamentary candidates of all political persuasions visiting its care homes. “It has all been a bit of a whirlwind,” admits Beatty. “Apart from appearing in the guide, I’ve been on a big telly programme, Panorama, about the election, saying why I think it’s important for both young and old people to vote.”

According to Age UK, there are 426,000 elderly and disabled people in residential care (including nursing homes), approximately 405,000 of whom are aged over 65. Jewish Care says it believes it has a duty to engage and support anyone who can, and wants to, have their say in the democratic process. “We also believe that by sharing inspirational stories about our clients’ involvement in politics we can inspire future generations, encouraging them to have their say and play a role in shaping the future,” says Simon Morris, Jewish Care chief executive.

Citizens UK – a nationwide alliance of 450 organisations, from faith groups and residents’ associations to schools, universities and trade unions is best known for its campaign to get employers to pay a living wage. It has been working with care and other community groups on a series of voter registration drives ahead of this week’s deadline. It is part of a broader campaign to ensure that the views of care home residents are heard by politicians bombarded by competing calls on resources.

Charlotte Fischer, its social care organiser says: “Care is so often seen as a poor relation to the NHS. Yet this is a generation who fought for our democracy – and now faces significant barriers to playing a part in that process to ensure their views are heard. Our voter registration programme has not only worked to rectify this, but also builds up relationships between care homes and other sections of their communities, like churches and schoolchildren, demonstrating that they are genuinely a part of their local communities. It’s a way of recognising people who live in care homes as people – and making sure that issues such as care, isolation and loneliness are on the political agenda.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care home providers. “Older people should be encouraged to use their right to vote because in doing so, they can send a clear message to politicians and the wider community that they have rights and deserve to be respected,” he says. “Unfortunately, we live in an ageist system and as soon as an older person gets sick or frail, they are often excluded from some of the rights and services that many of us take for granted.”

Someone joining the fight against this kind of exclusion is Clivia Philbin, 83, who has taken on the role of “voting champion” for the Orders of St John Care Trust which runs around 70 homes.

Sporting a rosette declaring “older people deserve a voice’” at her care home in Oxford, she is clear about the value of giving a voice to older people in danger of being excluded from the democratic process. “Life still goes on when you live in a residential home but it’s easy to drift into a kind of isolation because certain things are taken care of for you,” explains Philbin, who is among more than 100 staff and residents who have got involved with the charity’s voter registration campaign. It has covered registering for postal votes, arranging transport on polling day and training ‘champions’ in ways of engaging residents in the electoral process. An arrangement with the Electoral Commission has allowed residents and employees to register directly from the trust’s website.

The Electoral Commission has been working with many different organisations, including Stonehaven Care Group, Friends of the Elderly and The Order of St John’s Care Trust to ensure as many older people registered before the 20 April deadline. “We’re delighted that so many organisations are getting on board and making every effort to reach older people, including those living in care homes,” says a spokeswoman.

Philbin, who first became interested in current affairs as a young girl in pre-independence Trinidad, says: “It’s not about forcing people to get involved. “It’s about giving them the choice.”

Someone who can’t imagine not wanting to vote is Zelda Green, who lives in a residential home in north London and still feels the same passion for politics that saw her join the African National Congress as a young woman at the height of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Now approaching 70, and not keen to use her real name (given her past covert role as an activist), she recalls: “I was fortunate to meet Nelson Mandela on a couple of occasions when I worked as a nurse and a lecturer – and when you think about the deprivations people like him suffered to win basic rights like voting, you wonder how people can even think about not using their voice at elections.

“Having said that, there’s a temptation to become institutionalised when you live in a residential home – so it’s not hard to sink into a sort of apathy.

She adds: “That’s why campaigns reawakening people’s interest in politics – and the world around them – are a really good idea.”

For a free copy of the Jewish Care election guide go to jewishcare.org/about-us/resources