Give and take scheme provides a new blueprint for elderly care

initiative where volunteers serve the local population and "claim" for help when they need it intended to disable the demographic time bomb

Professor Heinz Wolff invented most of his life. Now, the scientist, 84, perhaps best known for his appearances on television shows such as Great Egg Race, expects its latest innovation will be one of their more powerful.

The challenge is enormous: how to disable the demographic time bomb. His solution is Care4Care, a system that allows volunteers to gain time for morning care to help others today. Currently being piloted with a group of about 90 volunteers, the plan Wolff eventually allow millions of people to have their own "board of health" -. A guarantee of care in old age, public funding has been significantly reduced

"Care4Care I see as a form of community mobilization is his mind to do something the country desperately needs. If you put in a couple of hours each week during the years here when reach 78 and are a bit creaky itself could have 5000 hours and can get what it's worth a lot of money -. including the minimum wage you are talking about £ 30,000 of attention, "says

Wolff has been associated with the Centre for the Study of Young Foundation, who has worked with age in the UK on the Isle of Wight Care4Care driver. According to the foundation, the combined regimen of altruism and self-interest, it is a convenient way to meet the growing demand for care for the elderly. "We believe there is always a gap between what the government is willing to pay and what is the need, and we need innovative solutions to bridge this gap," says the executive director of the foundation, Simon Tucker.

"An element of personal interest [in the provision of social assistance] may be useful. Gives people the feeling that more to give to others, others will be willing to give them. There is an element of reciprocity is at the heart of each community. "

• In the Isle of Wight, where the system was launched in March, volunteers have been hours of care to help older people with a range of tasks to help maintain independence in the home , trips to the shops to change a light bulb.

Jim Edmond and his wife in January and volunteers were aged UK when he enrolled in the plan. "My wife and I had aged parents who care in various ways for many years, and that motivated us., But it will attract other groups of younger people and possibly people who know that their pensions will be not so much in the future as they have been, "he said. "I know from my own experience that aid can be difficult not only expensive, but people getting the right time and continuity of care is a problem that more people are willing to do better - all hands .. the pump. "

In 2015, Wolff and the Young Foundation plans to have in place a national network, allowing people not only time banking for themselves, but to get credit for their elderly parents live elsewhere in the country. This was certainly the motivation for the Isle of Wight other voluntary part-time professor Louise Dewey, who had not been offered before Care4Care see diagram. "My grandmother went to the hospital at 99 with a hip fracture and I know she will need care when you leave," she said. "It is on the continent and we have not family nearby who can help you. This is what encouraged me to attend. Yet'm 50, so I do not seek attention to me. now make two or three hours a week and I It's very rewarding. "

Partners won £ 47,000 basic Nesta innovation for the development of the pilot project, and are now trying to develop a sustainable business model for national deployment. The Young Foundation has had "conversations" with the government on the potential of the system. But it is just that the volunteers are expected in the role of the state has played?
Tucker says it's a positive way. "With a big problem, it would be easy to fall into the trap of saying that everything is useless. But over the centuries, we have been good enough as a society in the use of ingenuity and spirit of the community to overcome obstacles. Already there is a large number of volunteers and we can build it. "

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