This could be the future for all of us. By the time we reach our nineties most of our contemporaries will be dead and our children nearing retirement age. Growing old in our own homes and needing round-the-clock attention will be too costly: care homes await us all.

So we must make sure that it's as good as possible. That's why it's important to install a system of inspections that guarantee good levels of physical provision together with an understanding of the psychology of ageing.

Part of the sadness of being old is that sense of loneliness that comes with living so long that you no longer understand the world around you. The incidence of depression is high. There are care homes where these matters are understood, but they tend to be beyond the reach of most. There are too many homes where the old are treated with indifference and the little things that matter — the fetching of a library book, a hot meal served while it's still hot — are neglected.

This is a field that calls for the most delicate of human relationships. And yet we don't make it easy or fund it adequately.

We need to reassess the whole way that late-life care is organised. I'd start by requiring care managers to experience what it's like to be an inmate and realise how many small but significant improvements could be made by a little human thoughtfulness. It is for all of us to consider how we will live out our last years, some sooner than others, myself sooner than most.

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