When all the talk about policies and programmes aimed at improving the life of the elderly is stripped of all the worn-out phrases and words that are often used by both the government and the private sector which provide care in residential homes, the good intentions that remain do not always match life on the ground.

People’s experiences often tell a different story, as the children of elderly people can ­testify.

There may well be people who, when caught in a desperate situation, decide to dump parents in a public hospital in the knowledge that the State will take good care of them. However, in sharp contrast to these people, many others go to great lengths to take care of their parents into old age or to put them in homes when they feel they are unable to handle them any longer.

Contrary to times past, St Vincent de Paul residential home is today very much sought after. However, it is not easy to get a place there, though the right connection can often make the job of securing one easier.

With the rapid growth of demand for care, the private sector has expanded its services into this new and lucrative business line. This is, of course, a healthy sign in the development of the island’s social care network.

But as the demand for such a service rises even further, in step with an ever ageing population, the need to ensure an acceptable standard in both public and private health care assumes greater importance. It is not only residents in State care that find cause for complaint in some places. The service in private care is not always up to scratch either, even though residents pay through their nose for it.

It is therefore with some expectation that people in residential homes await the formulation of a set of minimum standards that will, when drawn up, apply to all government, Church and private homes. In an update of the work in hand, Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana said that, when the minimum standards are in place, a regulatory body will be set up.

This is surely a step in the right direction in view of the fact there are now no fewer than 37 government, Church and private care homes, looking after more than 4,000 elderly people. Launching a helpline for people and their relatives wanting to lodge a complaint about services offered in residential homes, she said she had visited a number of homes and most issues were related to the way carers handled and treated residents and about the quality of food.

Shortcomings are found in both government and private homes. What hurts most though is the way some carers treat residents, the way they address them and talk to them, even in the presence of family members. They strip away their dignity, making them feel more helpless than they are. It is wrong to generalise, but people who have gone through the experience of having to place their loved ones in homes must have certainly come across carers whose standard of care is well below average.

The parliamentary secretary has in mind finding a way to ensure that carers are better trained and regulated.

She even has plans to set up a register so that carers breaching ethics or who act unprofessionally are struck off. There is much to do in this line but improving the standard of the carers is a definitely priority.