§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the principal objectives of this Department for the care of elderly people.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe principal objectives of the Department for the care of elderly people are:
- to strengthen the primary and community care service together with neighbourhood and voluntary support to enable people to continue to live at home;
- to encourage an active approach to treatment and rehabilitation
- to enable elderly people in hospital to return to the community wherever possible;
- to maintain capacity in the general acute sector to deal with the
573 increasing numbers of elderly people needing acute medical or surgical treatment; and - to maintain an adequate provision for the minority of people requiring long-term care in hospital or residential homes.
The Government's policies are set out in more detail in the White Paper "Growing Older", Cmnd 8173, published in 1981.