Monthly Archives: January 2014

Retired nurse aiming to tailor dementia treatment for sufferers

January 11, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Norfolk

Retired psychiatric nurse Lois Ransome is launching a business helping people with dementia to “come alive” in their own homes.

Saturday, January 11, 2014
12:30 PM

Retired pyschiatric nurse Lois Ransome is launching a business helping people with dementia to Retired pyschiatric nurse Lois Ransome is launching a business helping people with dementia to “come alive” in their own homes. “Bring Me Sunshine” Picture: James Bass

The 56-year-old said she had seen for herself the benefits of engaging with sufferers and wants to combine her passion with enterprise.

And by re-connecting people with dementia or Parkinson’s disease with their memories they could make more of today and feel valued, she said.

Mrs Ransome, who has worked within the NHS at Northgate in Great Yarmouth and in care homes, believed her business was unique in Norfolk, chiming with government thinking about helping people to stay in their own homes.Her work involves helping the mostly old folk maintain what function they have and to add interest to their lives they can share with others.

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Carers also need to be cared for

January 10, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia
All too often carers put their own wellbeing second to that of a sick family member

By The Sentinel  |  Posted: January 10, 2014

IT IS hugely positive that Staffordshire Fire and Rescue and community pharmacists are to work together to help protect vulnerable older people, particularly those in the early stages of dementia from being injured or killed in house fires.

As our population ages and dementia becomes a greater public health problem there will be an ever-growing need for such partnerships.

For too long older people suffering from this cruel disease have been sidelined by an overburdened welfare state.

Anything that strengthens the support network on which they depend can only be a good thing.

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Bedroom tax loophole could exempt 40,000 wrongly identified as liable

January 10, 2014   benefits, Carers, ukcuts

Housing benefit experts condemn ‘shambles’ as it emerges that DWP oversight could mean some actually profit from blunder

, and The Guardian,

Social housing bedroom tax

The bedroom tax loophole applies to working-age social housing tenants who are entitled to housing benefit. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Thousands of people have been wrongly identified as liable for the bedroom tax, including some who now face eviction or have been forced to move to a smaller property, as a result of an error by Department of Work and Pensions.

Housing experts believe as many as 40,000 people could be affected by the mistake. The DWP says it believes only a “small number” of tenants are affected, which it estimates number 5,000.

All could be eligible for refunds worth on average at least £640 per claimant and millions in aggregate.

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