Good communication between health and social care professionals and patients, their families and carers is recognized increasingly as integral to best management. Thus a central principle of the NHS Plan is that all patients should have open access to information about services, treatments and performance and should be treated as partners in their own care. Lack of information and poor communication is a common basis for complaints, and there is little evidence that older patients want any less information than those who are younger Certainly, if elderly people living with long-term illness, frailty or disability are fully informed, they will be better able to make appropriate decisions and actively participate in managing their own condition and their lives. In general, it is for professionals to provide the required information and support, or to direct people to other quality sources of evidence-based information, and not for them to decide whether or what should be disclosed.