Monthly Archives: December 2012

Norwich community centre needs urgent help!

Proposed Norwich community centre faces February auction – if campaigners fail to meet council’s cash demand

Friends of the Silver Rooms committee members, from left, Ian Gibson, chairman; Julie Brociek-Coulton, secretary; and Ann Turner, discuss plans for the Silver Rooms as they start fundraising to buy the building. Picture: Denise Bradley

 

Friends of the Silver Rooms  committee members, from left, Ian Gibson, chairman; Julie Brociek-Coulton, secretary; and Ann Turner, discuss plans for the Silver Rooms as they start fundraising to buy the building. Picture: Denise Bradley

Richard Wheeler Thursday, December 6, 2012
12:56 PM

Campaigners are urging people to dig deep to stop council bosses from selling an in-demand Norwich community centre at auction.

 

The Friends of the Silver Rooms have until December 20 to put down a deposit of approximately £2,600 to secure the Silver Road building, and January 4 to pay the first instalment of around £26,000.

A community centre is proposed for the former day centre, with scores of groups expressing their interest in hosting events and clubs for people of all ages.

But if the Friends fail to secure a deal, which will cost £80,000 over three years, then Norfolk County Council will put the Silver Rooms up for sale at auction in February.

Courses for carers in Conwy county and Christmas safety

Dec 6 2012 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

Learn to lift well and keep safe over Christmas

UNPAID carers who need advice and information on back care and safer moving and handling techniques can attend a free course next week.

The training includes advice on looking after your back, safer ways to move the person you care for, techniques for moving a person when they are in bed, and discussion on unsafe moving and handling practices.

The course is on Tuesday at Canolfan Marl, off Broad Street in Llandudno Junction. Sessions are 9am-12.30pm or 1pm-4.30pm.

Places are limited. To book a place contact Nia Cunnah, Conwy County Council’s senior carers officer, on 01492 575643.

Young carers for dying people

Professor Malcolm Payne, writer, consultant and educator on social work and end-of-life care.

Prof Malcolm Payne

Prof Malcolm Payne

I met Jake when he was 15 years old, living at home with his mother and two early-teen sisters. He knew his mother had lived with cancer for more than five years, during which time his father had gone back to the Caribbean with a new girlfriend. The family were loaded with debt and his mother was doing two jobs to keep their heads above water. Then she came back one day from a hospital appointment with the news that within months she was going to die. Soon, she needed help with washing, dressing, going to the toilet. Who else was there to help but Jake, a boy in his mid-teens? How were they going to eat?  And when his mother died, was he going to be the parent to his sisters?

Very often when we think about young people in the families of people at the end of their life, we think about how they will cope with loss and bereavement. But when parents approach the end of life, young people like Jake, especially in already fractured families, often face taking on practical caring and other family responsibilities. The 2001 UK census found that 114,000 children aged five to 15 acted as informal carers for an adult with a chronic illness. Five thousand of them provided more than 50 hours of care each week. Surveys of young carers suggest that many miss school, are responsible, like Jake, for providing intimate care and do not receive the formal assessment required by law of their own needs as a carer. They report tiredness, stress, anxiety, low self-esteem and social isolation.