Dame Judi Dench hits out at ‘inhumane’ care homes: ‘We should let our elderly live with us’

January 31st, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Liz Thomas

Last updated at 3:11 PM on 31st January 2012

Night out: Judi Dench with her daughter Finty Williams

Judi Dench has lambasted ‘inhumane’ care homes, suggesting families should take in elderly relatives instead.

The sight of pensioners being left with little to keep their minds busy was, she said, particularly distressing – and a prospect that made her desperate to carry on working.

Interviewed by Saga magazine, the 77-year-old James Bond actress said: ‘As anyone who’s visited one of these homes knows, you just cannot put people into a circle of chairs and have them watching television all day – it’s inhumane.

‘I don’t really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy. I’m certainly not ready to be packed away somewhere and told to put my feet up and go to bed at a certain time.’

Family was so important, said Dame Judi, that for 12 years she and her actor husband Michael Williams shared their home near Stratford-on-Avon with his parents and her widowed mother, Olave.

She added that having three generations of her family living together appealed to her Quaker upbringing: ‘After my father died and Michael and I got married, we bought a house in Warwickshire and we and my Ma and Michael’s parents all lived together.

‘It’s the way they do things in the Mediterranean countries and, of course, in India, but by the very nature of what it is, it’s not easy.

‘However, the pluses outweigh the disadvantages by a considerable margin. For example, my daughter Finty now remembers her grandparents very vividly and fondly.’

Dame Judi with daughter Finty Williams, husband Michael Williams and her mother Olave Dench

Dame Judi’s latest film – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – is about a group of pensioners who decide to live out their years in India.

She has previously spoken of her fond memories of the communal lifestyle she enjoyed while bringing up Finty, 39.

She has previously said: ‘It was like a proper Quaker community, certainly for bringing up a child, but also the whole idea of looking after your parents. Everyone had their own room but there didn’t seem any point to me in getting a place where we didn’t share a living area.

‘Of course that sometimes created quite a lot of tension. I wouldn’t say for a second that it was always easy and I was in tears quite often. On one occasion I even threw a cup of tea at Michael and his mother – fortunately, I missed!

‘But the good times quite outweighed the bad and I don’t regret a day of it.’

She nursed her husband at home as he battled lung cancer – a disease that killed him in 2001.

She is now dating David Mills, who runs a wildlife park near her home in Surrey.

Her concerns were reinforced yesterday by a report that accused councils of ‘age discrimination’ for underfunding vital services for older people by at least £500million a year.

Age UK said pensioners were being unfairly disadvantaged because councils were making swingeing cuts to care and hitting pensioners with higher charges.

The report, Care in Crisis, found that spending on older people’s care stagnated and then decreased between 2005/06 and 2011/12 – even though at the same time the number aged over 85, the group most likely to need care, has increased by almost 250,000.

The report concludes councils should be spending £7.8billion a year – around £500million a year more than current figures – on older people’s social care merely to maintain the ‘inadequate’ levels of provision in place when the Coalition took power.

It said thousands were being left without the help they needed to wash, dress and go to the lavatory. The Daily Mail has highlighted the effect of town hall cuts on vulnerable pensioners in its Dignity for the Elderly campaign.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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How will people be able to look after their own elderly parents when they themselves will be working until nearly 70 ? As the retirement age goes up people will still be working when their parents get to the age where they will need help themselves !!

– kaz, Manchester, 31/1/2012 22:03

What a load of rubbish, I really dislike people who project their own prejudices on to everyone else, I am familiar enough with care homes in my area to happily live in several. I doubt the Uk is much different. I would rather live in a care home than expect my older single son to worry about me each day. Much prefer he visits, while I am having a ball with plenty of people around me.

– Dee , New Zealand, 31/1/2012 21:53

I’m not a celebrity and I don’t have millions but I do agree that we have a responsibility to the people that nurtured us and love us as we grew. I guess the people getting all bend out of shape about it have a different set of priorities. I will make it work because I believe the benefits far out weigh the difficulties. To have my mother intricately involved in the lives of my children is more valuable to them and their growth as humans than an annual holiday or a car with multiple climate zones. She and Dad did what was needed when my brothers and I were small and I will do what’s needed in return at this end of her life. Sacrifice is becoming a word without meaning.

– Emma Sharples , Ballarat, Australia, 31/1/2012 20:56

its easy for her too say this things when she said they do this in India and other places , yesn we indians do it here as well our parents do not wish to go to old peoples homes so its left to us to look after them in the best way we can BUT HAS SHE OR ANYONE ELSE CONSIDER OR THOUGHT ABOUT THIS THAT WHY DOES THE YOUNG ONE NEEDS TOO LOOK AFTER THE OLD AGE PARENTS OR INMY CASE MY ELDERLY MOTHER WHEN THERE ARE 4 OTHER SONS WHO CAN HELP AND THEY ARE BETTER OFF THAN ME , WHEN I AM STRUGGLING TO MAKE MY ENDSMEET WITH MY FAMILY . I’ll bet even if someone from higher authority is reading this comments or articles they would do some thing about this i need too edcuate my kids to a better standard than my self . right now my 19 year old daughter is at( UNI) otherone is at college and my young son who is 3 is at home my self and my wife we both do part time so we both take care of my mum and my son .

– Bharat patel, LONDON. , 31/1/2012 20:43

My mum has, within the last year, moved into the same apartment complex as my husband and I. She is disabled, she has osteoarthrosis, with both shoulders and both knees replaced. Mum also has diabetes. Although she is able to walk, she does sometimes need to use a wheelchair or a cane to get around. She does not drive and cannot take public transit, so is dependant on my husband and I for almost all of her needs. We both work full time, although we are childless by choice, so we don’t have that worry. A care home is not an option for us, mainly because of money. Mum has absolutly no savings thanks to my brother and his girlfriend helping themselves to every penny that she had. Not an exaggeration, they cleaned her completly out, and me and the hubby are like most people and live cheque to cheque. You know how you do it? You suck it up, put on your big girl (boy) pants, and carry on. Is she demanding? Oh yes. Is it tiring? Oh yes. But you get through it. She’s my mum and I love her.

– me, Canada, 31/1/2012 20:28

Reading this article made my blood boil but reading your comments has made me feel so much better. Not all homes are as bad as she makes out and not all families are in a position to look after their elders, who can be suffering with an illness which can be overwhelmingly difficult to live with 24 hours a day.

– Michelle, Norwich, 31/1/2012 20:18

Mellors, South of the Park, what absolute rubbish are you spouting? Have you actually been to India or are you just going by what you see on television? I have been to India many times, and I have yet to see a child searching through bins for food. And if it’s such a high priority in this country to educate, feed and look after children, how come so many of them are running amok and terrorising people much older than themselves? That’s something you don’t see in India. I suggest you take a trip around the world – you might learn something and stop being so ignorant.

– Seraphina, London, 31/1/2012 20:08

Read “Have the Men Had Enough” by Margaret Forster, then decide.

– floss, uk, 31/1/2012 19:06

Dame Judy is so out of touch with reality!!! At a time when both parents are working full time, and worry about the precious time that they have with their children and satisfying their needs. How on earth does she expect people to then have the physical and emotional strength to care for elderly relatives as well. How do you do this when you are at work?? Do you leave them to their own devices for 8-9 hours a day? What if they are incontinent etc?? Is this not more inhumane than a care home? It is all very well if you are members of the population who manage to receive in excess of £26k a year on benefits (which would be 34k pre tax) and can spend the entire day at home caring for children and elderly relatives…. but unfortunately Dame Judy the vast majority of us are not in that position? Or maybe she is suggesting that we all go on benefits, and spend the day at home???? Unbelievable!

– Debbie , Cheshire, 31/1/2012 18:30

God – these celebrities are so patronising. So easy to make comments like this when you are a multi millionaire – hey Judy – imagine for one minute you live on a council estate with three children in a three bed tiny house – your husband works all hours as a truck driver and you work part time in the local supermarket – you are trying trying, your best to make ends meet and then wait for it, according to you, you should welcome your elderly parents, aunts uncles etc into your home as well – depite the fact they may have alzheimers. I have made this scenario up but it’s probably quite typical for some families. What if you don’t get on with your parents – they abused you as a child etc. Christ, this woman’s comments are so offensive – in their ideal little bubble of a world they just don’t think things through do they? They make comments like this and then disappear back into their celeb world – put your money where your mouth is!

– Tessy you shouldn’t ‘ave blabbed, Bristol, 31/1/2012 17:55

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