Why is it a crime to grow old?

THERE probably never was a good time to grow old - especially if it was happening to you.

But there was something quite attractive about watching families cherish ageing grandparents, and the way old aunties and uncles were given pride of place.

Growing old wasn't something that terrified you. Well, not any more.

It didn't need a Government survey to reveal that nine out of 10 of us live in dread of getting old.

Or that more than half of us are petrified of losing our mind or being infirm in old age. But that is what the Department of Health survey has shown.

And some of us are so scared, apparently, we're even hoping to die before old age so we don't have to face all these problems. It's a sobering thought to be mulling over with your Sunday fry-up.

In fact, if you up that to three fry-ups a week, chances are you won't live long enough to find out which home your kids are planning to pap you out to.

So tuck in - if you don't want to end up in some granny farm at the mercy of a truculent care worker on minimum wage.

Because the truth is, there are more bad care homes than good ones. So either we look for cheap one-way flights to the Swiss suicide clinic, or we start taking a serious look at what we are doing to our old people today.

Because tomorrow it will be us.

The Government survey comes at a time when Scotland's elderly are suffering record levels of abuse, with over 275 complaints against care homes last year.

It's a staggering rise since 2005. And more than 60 per cent of abuse claims - from poor nutrition to loss of dignity - were upheld by the Care Commission.

Indeed, if ever there was a time to dread growing old, it is now.

Even though Scotland, with its flagship free care for the elderly, is a beacon of light in the dark, we are still managing to fail our old people.

How many times do we flick past a newspaper story of yet another care home being slated for a catalogue of neglect?

The truth is, unless it is an extreme case of starvation and death, we look away.

Well, we can start making changes, by demanding the Government tightens laws on care homes - like vetting the people who own them. How did they make their money? Scrutinise everything before anyone gets a licence to own a care home, in the same way people who look after children are vetted.

The rest, I'm afraid, is up to us. The concept of the granny farm became big business in the grasping climate of the 1980s where everyone lived for today and themselves.

It became the norm to punt your parents into a home because looking after them didn't fit in with your lifestyle.

Of course, there have and always will be cases where an elderly person who needs 24-hour care has to go into a home. And it will always be the most heart-rending decision for a family.

But somewhere along the line the elderly became second-class citizens. It's almost a crime now to grow old.

Youth is everything - even if it is only a façade. There's the ridiculously patronising adverts with a silver-haired couple cavorting in the snow because they are using denture adhesive - when the truth is if you fell in the snow you'd probably have trouble getting back up.

And there's the endless condescending way people talk to old people, from nursing staff to supermarket check-out girls.

They'd better not speak to me as if I'm daft and deaf when I'm old.

When I visit other countries, old people seem to be much happier. In Spain, you see lots of families strolling on the promenade with the old mum and dad - a throwback to how WE were years ago.

I was at a wedding in Greece a couple of years ago, and it was the little kids who kept propping up the 94-year-old great-granny as she dozed and kept slipping off her chair.

It was a moving picture of respect and love that seems to have diminished here. Perhaps if we can find it again, someone will prop us up . . . if we live long enough.

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