Letter: Family limits over care of the elderly

Sir: Paul Twyman clearly has a mental picture of the pleasure-

loving middle-aged callously refusing to look after grandma because she will interfere with their lives. It is not quite so simple. People are living longer. There are thousands of us in our middle and late seventies struggling to look after relatives in their nineties and even beyond.

If we give up it is not through lack of love or a sense of responsibility. It is because we can no longer physically and emotionally cope without help - and the amount of help most of us receive from the fabled 'care in the community' is derisory. That is what is 'outrageous'.

Yours faithfully,

KATE WATTS

London, W5

2 September