Taken for a Ride
- Author:
Michael Meacher
Longman, ?6.75
Despite the rather gimmicky title, this is a serious book written by a former social gerontologist on the frequently neglected subject of the placement of the ‘confused’ elderly person in our society.
The author has made a study in depth of five types of institution which house ‘confused’ elderly people. The aim of the study is to evaluate how these people fared in each of the two broad categories of accommodation at present available in this country: the ordinary residential homes in which the rational elderly perspn predominates; and the special or specialist home whose main purpose is to care for those suflering from irreversible dementia. The early parts of the book consider the attitudes of patients considered to be ‘confused’ by other inmates and the staff in charge of the institutions, and also considers admissions policies and screening procedures when they existed.
No one will disagree with criticisms of a specialist policy as it appears to operate in many parts of our society today but even the author acknowledges that some degree of separatism is necessary in medical management of confused elderly patients. A sad picture of their care emerges, composed of understaffing, frequent intolerance and good-intentioned mismanagement.
The self-critical faculty, so essential in the good scientific observer, is apparent throughout the book; while one sympathises with the hypercriticism the author shows to the minor inadequacies of his study, these are really the result of a sofitary investigator without a backing team of psycho-geriatricians, clinical psychologists, etc.
Indeew, consideration of the role the doctor must play in such homes is strangely absent.
In the final chapters the author makes a strong plea, based on human principles, for the revision of our attitudes to the present policy of separating the elderly confused in our society. Anne Gilmore
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