29 Autumn Dorothea Court glowed with all the Autumn colours at its Harvest Festival celebration on September 30th. Tables for tea were decorated with some of the brightly coloured leaves from the park across the road, and everyone enjoyed a meal of superbly cooked soup and rolls, and apple crumble and cream served by members of staff who volunteered to give up some of their spare time to help serve and clear up afterwards. The main lounge was also decorated especially for the occasion, and after tea a special Harvest Festival Thanksgiving Service was led by Roger Eaves, Chairman of The Friends of Dorothea. He said that we are both sowers and reapers, and we can look forward to the future harvest when believers' souls will be reaped into the heavenly harvest. Celebrating the harvest like this is a wonderful way of thanking God for His faithfulness. He has promised that the seasons will continue till the end of time, and each harvest is a reminder of His creation and His provision for us. Autumn glow at Dorothea Court Deryn van der Tang Autumn leaves decorate tables for the Harvest supper

Tribute 30 ' UK can't afford its over 65s', was the headline to an article in the press recently. It went on to say that the social care system is facing a time bomb as life expectancy rises and the number of older people with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's increases. Other social commentators say that the problem is not having to provide for the over 65s, but the cost of other social programmes combined with the lost revenues of huge numbers of working age people who are unemployed - nearly three million in July 2009, the highest fi gure since comparable records began. But many observers believe that the real issue is the way the monies are allocated, and how this is infl uenced by ageism and other negative attitudes toward the elderly. Noting how the over 65s were placed last in the current swine- fl u vaccination programme, Dr James Grier, speaking at Pilgrim Homes' London conference in November summed it up when he said, ' Within the healthcare system they are viewed as using precious resources that could be put to other use, and in a pandemic you'll be the last one to be helped. It's amazing.' The issue of the cost of care for our elderly could have more signifi cance than just rationing what's available. It was particularly disturbing to read readers' comments to an article about dementia care on a national newspaper website. A number of people said they thought that euthanasia was the answer, because people with dementia have no quality of life. A few said that if they developed dementia they would look for ways to end their life. Together with fears about demographic ' time- bombs' and an ever stronger movement towards euthanasia, these emerging views could have serious implications. The roots to the fears are in the back story and the different voices raised in the ' life' debate, from attitudes towards older people which say, in effect, that they have had their day and resources shouldn't be wasted on them and organisations such as the ' Dignity in Death' lobby which wants assisted suicide made legal. Idiomatic is Baroness Warnock, medical ethics advisor to the government, who said that ' pensioners in mental decline are " wasting people's lives" and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain. She insisted that there was " nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society. In an interview with a church magazine she went further by claiming that dementia sufferers should consider Our supporters standing in the gap Louise Morse