Monthly Archives: January 2014

Dying patients should be exempt from social care charges

January 15, 2014   Cancer, Carers, dementia, Social care, ukcuts
We need to talk about end-of-life care so fewer people face a lonely death in hospital. Free social care would be a start

theguardian.com,

 

A massage therapist works on the feet of a terminally ill hospice resident.

This week the care bill committee is debating who should be eligible for social care. MPs will also consider whether to add a clause that would enable exemption from social care charges for those at the end of their lives.

The amendment would also establish the need for better forward planning about where we would like to die. Most of us would prefer to be at home surrounded by the people we love, yet fewer than one in three are currently able to do so.

Why is it that 89% of those who die in hospital do so following an unplanned admission? In many cases it is because of the sheer exhaustion that comes with providing around-the-clock care. At the end of life there may be a period of days, but sometimes far longer, of complete dependency. Families go to enormous lengths to cope but, especially where there is only one person in a position to provide care, the elastic can only stretch so far.

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Leicester City Council seeks foster carers for elderly people

January 15, 2014   Carers, Older care

A fostering scheme where families will be paid to take elderly people into their homes is to be tried in Leicester.

Carers will be paid £224 a week and Leicester City Council will pay for modifications to their homes.

Age UK warned that potentially vulnerable people could be placed in homes with strangers.

But the council said carers would be vetted before being approved, and care would be closely monitored.

In October, the council confirmed plans to close or sell off eight of its care homes.

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NHS care at home for elderly and disabled quietly slashed by a third

January 14, 2014   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

Huge pressure on family carers

 

Care at home for elderly and disabled quietly slashed by a third

By , Social Affairs Editor

6:45AM GMT 14 Jan 2014

Analysis of NHS figures exposes scale of rationing of care at home for elderly and disabled as MPs scrutinise Coalition overhaul

The number of frail elderly and disabled people receiving care at home has been slashed by a third in just five years as councils have reined in spending because of pressure from budget cuts, a new study shows.

The squeeze in overall numbers receiving care in England comes at a time when the numbers of older people has been growing almost twice as fast as the general population.

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