Dame Judi Dench calls care homes “warehouses”

London: Dame Judi Dench has hit out at the mistreatment of the elderly, saying that it is a distressing “scandal”, branding care homes as little more than “warehouses”. The outspoken 77-year-old Oscar-winning actress also stated that elderly were medicated in these care homes to make looking after them easier. “The way the elderly are treated, and in some cases warehoused and medicated, rather than nurtured and listened to, is distressing,” the Daily Express quoted her as telling Radio Times. “The fact that they pay taxes all of their lives and then are expected to give all of their savings to maintain themselves should they need assistance is absolutely disgraceful and one of the great scandals of our society,” she said. “We’re not good at dealing with old age in this country. We shove people in a room and leave them sitting round a television,” she said. Dench also said that the parents of her late husband, Michael Williams, and her widowed mother all lived with her at her family home for 12 years in an “ideal” arrangement. ANI