Why elderly should be cherished (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Why elderly should be cherished

8:24am Monday 13th February 2012 in Our View By Telegraph & Argus

Dignity and respect in age would not appear to be too much for our growing generation of older people to ask for, and one of the reasons we launched the Telegraph & Argus With Respect Campaign was to help try and ensure that happened.

And if you cannot get that from your family, where can you get it from? That is what makes the case reported today of Rose Burns doubly unsavoury. The very person she should have expected the most support from as she grew older actually tormented her in her own home before finally assaulting her.

The bond between mother and child is a fundamental tenet of our society, which makes it so difficult to understand why her son Paul treated her in such an appalling way that he ended up before the Crown Court on an assault charge, narrowly escaping jail.

Mrs Burns was left feeling like a recluse in her own home, with the love and care she had shown her son flung back at her. While this is an extreme case, it does highlight the dangers vulnerable pensioners can face when they have to put themselves in the hands of others because of their own frailties.

In sentencing, Judge Durham Hall rightly told Burns that elderly relatives should be cherished, loved and protected. And he warned of stiff punishments for those who turn against them.

It is a sad indictment of a small minority of our society that a Crown Court judge has to issue a warning like that.

We should all let it serve as a reminder of how important it is to treat older members of society with the dignity and respect we would expect for ourselves – and to be on the lookout for anyone who might be a victim of unscrupulous or uncaring relatives or carers.