Monthly Archives: December 2011
Spare a thought for carers this Christmas
Our forum will be open over the Christmas Holiday
For many carers this Christmas it will be no different to any other time of year, while families go out shopping,
attending parties and having time off work enjoying the festive season, carers still have to do the same things regardless.
Illness and disability doesn’t go away just because it’s Christmas. The TV portrays families having a perfect Christmas, but as we know, this is not the same for every family.
There is nothing good to say about Alzheimer’s
Disease with dreadful sadness for carers
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Michael Gill with his son A. A. Gill in 2003. “The illness gave us a long time to make our farewells. There was nothing left unsaid between us,” says the writer Peter Marlow/Magnum
The thing with this sentence, this arrest of dementia, is that its greatest victims aren’t those who have it. That’s not to say that the diagnosis isn’t dreadful for the recipient, but there is a peculiar and particular hammering sadness for those that love and care for an Alzheimer’s spouse or parent.
It is a wearying and lonely obligation, but with the added cruelty that the person you’re looking after vanishes, escapes before your eyes. In the end, you’re caring for the case that someone came in.
The Government has spent less time and less money on elderly and child care or family policy.
2011: social affairs news in review
While the NHS has been in the spotlight all year, the Government has spent less time and less money on elderly and child care or family policy.
By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Editor
8:00AM GMT 22 Dec 2011
Elderly care
After years of indecision, delay and argument, a comprehensive and workable solution to England’s elderly care crisis was finally delivered in 2011.
The proposal by the Dilnot Commission to cap costs at about £35,000, and to make the means-testing system less unfair on pensioners with some assets, was almost universally welcomed by campaigners and support groups.
