Monthly Archives: June 2013

Some paid carers can only stay for 10 minutes!

June 13, 2013   Carers, disability, Social care, ukcuts

Disabled and elderly home care: Crisis talks being held

Norman Lamb MP “We need to transform care now,” minister Norman Lamb said

Care minister Norman Lamb is meeting care providers later to discuss what he says is a crisis in care of the elderly and disabled at home.

Mr Lamb says a quarter of all clients in England are unhappy with the service they receive.

BBC social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan says a priority will be ensuring visits last longer – at present some only last 10 minutes.

Continuity will also be called for, so people are familiar with their carers.

Hundreds of thousands of people are currently looked after by companies in their own homes and that number will increase in the coming years as the population ages, says the BBC’s Michael Buchanan.

Mr Lamb believes the current system results in poor care, low wages and neglect, and is warning that there could be an abuse scandal in this sector, as serious as the problems which occurred at Stafford hospital.

Much domiciliary care, also known as home care, is paid for by local councils who say that a funding crisis – exacerbated by austerity cuts – limits the amount they can afford.

Carers should not be constrained to providing care in 15-minute slots and they should not receive less than the minimum wage because of non-payment of travel time, Mr Lamb said ahead of the talks.

Those in need of care should not have to endure a “parade of unfamiliar care workers”, he added.

“We need to transform care now for the sake of the 300,000 people currently getting home care and for the millions more who will need it in years to come,” he stressed.

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The lessons Japan has for the UK on dementia

June 12, 2013   Alzheimer’s, dementia

As the UK population ages, our politicians are looking at the policies of a country where one in four people is over 65

  • The Guardian,

 

Japan introduced a compulsory long-term care insurance system in 2000 to help cope with its ageing population.

Jeremy Hunt’s recent visit to Japan passed almost unnoticed in Britain. Yet the issues he discussed with Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, and the health minister, Norihisa Tamura, touched on a problem that is likely to dominate social policy in the next decade: dementia care. One in four of the Japanese population is over 65. By 2050, the proportion will be 40%. There are already 4.6 million people with dementia in Japan. Britain, with 10 million people over 65, has 800,000 people living with dementia, at an annual direct cost to the Treasury of more than £10.2bn pounds. By 2050, Britain is expected to have around 1.7 million dementia sufferers.

Not surprisingly, the condition has been a prominent concern to past and current policymakers. In 2009, the Labour government unveiled an ambitious dementia strategy, which aimed to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their carers through greater understanding within society and improved services. Last year, the coalition government also emphasised the need to improve dementia care, with David Cameron launching his “challenge on dementia”, which identified three major goals: better health and care, fostering “dementia-friendly” communities, and improved research.

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Worcestershire leads drive to defuse dementia time bomb

June 11, 2013   anorexia nervosa, Carers, dementia

NHS figures show Herefordshire and Worcestershire have some of the highest dementia cases in the UK

The good news is that most of us are living longer.

The not-so-good news is the longer we live, the further we seem to be from meeting the challenges of caring for an ageing population. First came the pensions crisis, and now it’s the dementia time bomb; the long-term residential and nursing care of elderly dementia patients and how we are to pay for it.

The caring services are clearly at risk of becoming victims of their own success. Having extended the length of average life-spans, they now have to meet the growing demands on their resources and expertise.

NHS projections make disturbing reading. Last year, the number of dementia patients, (diagnosed and estimated undiagnosed) in the West Midlands stood at 70,739. By 2021 this number is forecast to reach 90,038.

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