Does anyone else feel like this has been a long time coming for seniors’ care homes and retirement centres? For years, I have heard many outrageous stories of elderly abuse and neglect at these types of places. I’m sure some of them aren’t terrible, but I’ve always felt they were essentially warehousing elderly people so that their families didn’t have to look after them.

All of this is of course because their offspring, the present working-age demographic, are busier than ever at work. It used to be (and perhaps still is in some countries) that people would live in multigenerational homes. Grandparents would participate in the rearing of their grandchildren and in turn receive care and support from their offspring. Houses were never empty during the day, as they so often are in the suburbs we occupy these days. Perhaps it’s time we reconsider our ideas around the nuclear family and revisit the traditional way of life.