Category Archives: internet

Age is no barrier for Silver Surfers!

August 28, 2012   Carers, internet, Older care, Wales
“We’re not just silver surfers here – we’re getting to be Golden Googlers”
August 28, 2012 | By |

 

Pensioners at a Sheltered Housing Scheme in Abergele are proving that age is no barrier to joining the computer generation. After a little expert help and a great deal of enthusiasm the residents at Pentre Mawr have become digital dynamos discovering a whole new world of on-line activities.

 

“Even before a learning session with Jen Bailey, the Digital Inclusion Officer, our residents were raring to go with her help we’ve really embraced the opportunity,” said Alison Pring, Warden at the scheme, which is managed by Clwyd Alyn Housing Association.

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Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

August 21, 2012   Carers, disability, internet

Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

Success of Twitter-driven approach put down to ability to engage many campaigners confined to their homes
• Behind the Paralympics, the reality for disabled people in Britain 2012

 

Many disabled people who might otherwise have been unable to be heard have become engaged by campaigns on Twitter.

While there are fears that traditional methods of disability activism are on the wane, a new campaigning spirit is been forged using the social media revolution.

The past 18 months have seen the first flowerings of a new network of activist groups and a shared, inclusive approach that has thrust their engaging campaigning style into the public eye.

Galvanised by the government’s draconian welfare reform agenda, the new activism arguably is helping to renew a disability movement thought by some to have lost its way in recent years.

The staggering Twitter-driven success of the “We Are Spartacus” campaign in January announced the emergence of this new wave. This carefully planned viral campaign steered by a tiny band of activists almost single-handedly put the previously arcane issue of cuts in disability living allowance on the public agenda.

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Loneliness rife among older men

July 26, 2012   Carers, Depression, internet, Older care

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Many men over 75 suffer from lack of social contact and depression

190,000 British men over 75, who live alone, are lonely according to WRVS research, which identified 36 per cent spend more than 12 hours of the day on their own.

The research found that these men are more likely to be lonely than women, however they are less likely to confide in friends and family about their feelings (11 per cent men, 24 per cent women).

The findings also highlight the extent to which these men are socially isolated with 41 per cent typically having two or less face to face conversations a day and one in 33 (three per cent) having none.

There is widespread agreement amongst experts that loneliness is a serious health issue because it makes it more likely that older people will develop illnesses that reach crisis level and need hospital care.

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