Monthly Archives: May 2012

The meals-on-wheels postcode lottery

Some councils are spending less than £4 a week on meals-on-wheels for elderly people while others spending almost 30 times that much, a study shows.

The meals-on-wheels postcode lottery

By , Social Affairs Editor

7:00AM BST 31 May 2012

Campaigners said the figures exposed a “scandalous postcode lottery” in provision for the elderly.

It follows warnings that increasing numbers of older people are arriving in hospital showing signs of malnutrition.

A study based on official statistics by the data analysts, Ssentif, found that councils spend an average of just under £34 per person per week on meals for elderly people including meals on wheels services and luncheon clubs.

Health Lottery funding for Admiral Nurses

Dementia UK is delighted to have received Health Lottery funding, raised by local Health Lottery partners and players, to establish eleven new Admiral Nurse posts across England.

 

This crucial funding will allow us to establish Admiral Nurse posts in new localities as well as enabling us to expand our reach in areas where there are already Admiral Nurse services.

Working with local partners, these newly funded Admiral Nurses will help support more families affected by dementia and share best practice with local health and social care professionals to improve dementia care.

We are now in the process of setting up these new Admiral Nurse services with local partners in the following areas:

  • North Yorkshire/ York

The politics of self-interest in addressing elderly care

By Steve Doughty

PUBLISHED: 20:36, 30 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:43, 30 May 2012

The cost of looking after old people is almost going to double in the next 20 years, and the number of people who will have to bear the crushing burden of paying for their own care will more than double.

This is what we are told in a report backed by eminently able academic researchers and published by the Local Government Association, the umbrella body of local councils.

It is local councils, of course, which run the bureaucratic organisations currently known as adult social services which are responsible for dishing out the meals on wheels, the bathroom safety fittings, and the caring workers who help wash and dress the vulnerable elderly.