Monthly Archives: December 2012

Why bus drivers are being taught about dementia

December 17, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

By Jane Dreaper Health correspondent, BBC News

Thousands of bus drivers around Britain are being given special training so they can help passengers with dementia.

 

Drivers Chris Peter and Krystyna Ryan took part in the dementia awareness training

It’s part of an initiative by the Prime Minister which is trying to encourage everyone to be more aware of the needs of older people who have dementia, to help them in their daily lives.

 Can you remember what is on a 1p coin?

I watched a training session at a First Group depot in an industrial part of north-west London. It is home to more than 100 buses, and a work base for 300 drivers.

Upstairs, 11 members of staff gather for what proves to be a hard-hitting couple of hours. It begins with a simple memory test.

The trainer, Keith Sheard, promises the drivers an easy exercise. He asks them to draw a picture of both sides of a 1p coin, with as much detail as they can remember.

He jokes: “Dead easy this – you handle these coins every day!”

Over time, the dementia will come back and take everything from you.”

Keith Sheard Trainer

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NHS building online app centre

December 17, 2012   Carers, health, hospital

NHS building online app centre

UK News | December 17, 2012

NHS building online app centre

The NHS Commissioning Board is building a directory of online apps to help people improve their health and wellbeing.

The directory will be a trusted listing of online health and care tools, all of which will be accessible from mobile devices or desktop computers.

The tools will help people use good information to make choices about their health and care – people will also be able to add in their own health details to receive personalised information through the tool, and then share this with their clinicians or care staff if they choose to do so.

The sort of online tool in the directory include things such as care planning to support people living with one or more long-term condition, in which they can create online care plans, record their experiences and invite their carers to see these online.

It will also look at information and advice for older people, particularly if this can help reduce isolation and loneliness. The directory will be revealed at Innovation Expo in March 2013, held in London’s ExCel Centre.

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Parents who look after grown-up disabled offspring face benefit cap

December 17, 2012   Carers, disability

Ministers confirm £500-a-week cap will apply to carers after children reach adulthood, forcing some into care

 

Jacqueline Smirl with her son, who is 20 and needs 24-hour care.

The government’s proposed benefit cap will apply to carers looking after their disabled offspring, forcing some parents to move out of their home or put their child into care, it has been confirmed.

Ministers have repeatedly said disabled people will be exempt from the £500-a-week benefit cap that is due to come into force in April.

But they have now accepted that if a parent is still looking after a disabled child after they reach adulthood, even if the child’s mental age is as low as eight, the parent and the child will be treated separately, and the parent will be subject to the benefits cap.

In the Commons last week the work and pensions minister Esther McVey said: “In practice most carers will be exempt [from the cap] because their partner or child is in receipt of disability living allowance.”

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