Tag Archives: health

The care home abuse epidemic

The care home abuse epidemic: Families make 15,000 complaints in just one year (and that’s just a fraction of the true scale)

  • Some 14,888 claims about welfare of residents aged 65 and over in 2013-14
  • And almost a third of these ‘safeguarding referrals’ were upheld
  • Only half of the 152 councils responded to freedom of information requests
  • Families claimed their complaints were often ignored or not taken seriously

Carers need support to continue after the death of a loved one, claims report

People who give up a caring role to which they have devoted much of their lives often suffer from depression

Health Correspondent

Thursday 19 February 2015

Support for carers must not stop after the person they look after passes away or moves out of the home, a new report has urged.

Carers need help not just to look after loved ones, but also to cope with the aftermath of their caregiving coming to an end, the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC-UK) said.

Norfolk and Suffolk mental health Skype ‘outsourcing’ causes concern

The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust manages mental health wards at Hellesdon Hospital near Norwich, and around the counties

A health trust’s proposal to help treat patients with depression by using “staff from lower wage countries” via Skype showed a lack of understanding of mental health care, say campaigners.

The idea was put forward in a report to the government by the mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk.

Unison, which represents mental health staff, said the plan failed to show an understanding of mental health care.

A trust spokesman said the proposal was looked at but has been dismissed.

The plan, drawn up towards the end of last summer, was contained in a successful application to the government by the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) to fund consultants to look into new ways of running the trust.

Emma Corlett, of Unison, criticised the suggestion that patients with depression could be helped by staff from low-wage countries via Skype

One option could see the NSFT become a mutual – a firm owned by its workers, as is the case with retailer John Lewis.

The report said the use of staff from outside the UK to help prevent depression and psychosis was a “new approach” to be explored.

Emma Corlett, spokeswoman for Unison at the trust, said: “Our view of the report is that it shows whoever did the application did not have a very clear understanding of the work frontline staff do or the way face-to-face therapy works.