The Telegraph & Argus today launches a campaign aimed at changing attitudes to the elderly in our society and winning them the respect and dignity they deserve.

If anyone thinks that change is not long overdue, then the shocking story of 85-year-old Betty West’s final days in hospital, told in our special report inside, cannot fail to convince them otherwise. Mrs West’s story highlights the plight that our older generations sometimes have to face.

Alone for much of the time, away from home in an alien environment, she should have been treated with dignity and respect. Instead, her daughter Julie Farmer says she was left distressed and humiliated, shunted into a side ward where she eventually died.

The story of Mrs West highlights the issues our society is facing as a growing number of people are living longer. As our elderly population increases, more pressure is being placed on the way we care for them.

And sometimes, the one thing that is most precious to them is lost as a result.

For proud pensioners who have given their working lives to this country, and in some cases have actively fought for it, their dignity is everything. And losing that, whether it be due to fading physical or mental faculties or because they need to appeal to others to help them, can be a devastating hammer blow.

The With Respect... campaign is designed to change the attitude of our society to the older generation.

Thankfully, many of our older generation will live long, healthy and happy lives, fading out peacefully at a ripe old age. But others find themselves lost and cast adrift, unsure and unhappy in a world that seems to have left them behind.

They have either been left on their own by the loss of a loved one or placed into a new environment like a hospital ward or care home, and find it difficult to cope. More than ever, at such a vulnerable stage of their lives, they deserve to be treated as adults and equals. As we have seen, that doesn’t always happen.

The With Respect... campaign is not simply or specifically about quality of health care, or nursing homes, or lack of family support.

Instead, we want everybody to ask themselves: Do I do enough? Do I show the respect that our ageing population deserves?

It is often said that a society should be judged on the way it treats its weakest members.

How would we fare on that criteria?