Standing up for older people

January 18, 2017 Written by Becky Merchant

Tags: charity older people retirement social action

Here at Stand we’ll always stick up for what we believe in and recently we’ve been standing up for the rights of older people with two separate campaigns.

With our clients Anchor and Solicitors for the Elderly, we’ve successfully got the public talking about issues affecting older people and, most importantly, we’ve got people pledging to take positive action.

Starting with Anchor, we launched Standing Up 4 Sitting Down, to call for retailers and high streets to include more seating for older people and those with disabilities. The goal was for people to acknowledge and value the contribution older people make to the economy and, in turn, take action that would benefit their everyday lives.

Our research findings formed the focus of our campaign as we discovered that the economy is losing a massive £3.8 billion each year through not catering for the needs of older people. With a package of qualitative and quantitative research, influential industry supporters, and passionate older people willing to speak out about the importance of seating – the campaign was a hit.

Showing it’s not just us that see the importance of standing up for older people, in less than a week, Standing Up 4 Sitting Down was covered in 15 national news outlets and made the headlines of BBC News and BBC Breakfast 18 times in just 24 hours.

We’ve also had some fantastic pledges in from retailers including Morrisons, Tesco, and Debenhams committing to providing seating for older people – watch this space for more!

Moving on from the right to sit down, older people also ought to have their wishes and legal rights recognised and respected. Enter, Solicitors for the Elderly.

To put it simply – a LPA is powerful legal document which sets out people’s decisions about their finances and care choices for later life, should they lose the capacity to make these decisions at the time.

Difficult decisions not to be taken lightly; which is why SFE wanted to raise awareness about the issues around a new tool, launched by the government, that allows people to make their own DIY LPAs online.

Alongside support from partners, the SFE team laid out the risks that these DIY LPAs open people up to – including fraud, ineffectual documents and financial abuse – and secured some incredible results.

The ‘Hidden cost of DIY LPAs’ campaign saw a spread of national coverage in print and broadcast big hitters; including The Times and BBC Radio 4’s Money Box and You & Yours.

Both campaigns have raised awareness of important issues affecting the lives of older people, got people talking, and offered solutions. In doing so, Stand is proud to say we’ve had a direct impact on older people’s lives as we help to tackle the loneliness, isolation and the abuse of older people.