Author Archives: Maureen
Hard hitting report calls for earlier diagnosis of dementia and faster ‘co-ordinated care’
Obtaining a diagnosis of dementia can bring a whole range of benefits to patients and their carers, according to a new report.
Date of article: 19-Nov-13
The ‘Benefits of Timely Dementia Diagnosis’, due to be published at the annual conference of the Dementia Action Alliance, found diagnosis can reduce anxiety, help people plan for the future, allow them to access local support and give them the tools they need to explain their condition to friends and family.
“In the past the value of dementia diagnosis has too often been measured in terms of what medication a GP can give a patient,” said Simon Kitchen, executive lead of the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA).
“Realising that diagnosis can bring many emotional benefits and put people back in control of their lives changes the terms of the argument and may help to push up timely diagnosis rates, which are still unacceptably low.”
The issue of whether it is beneficial for someone with dementia to have an early diagnosis, has long been a subject of debate, with some saying not to diagnose protects the person with dementia from ‘harm or unnecessary stress’.
Other opponents to early diagnosis say if little can be done in terms of effective medical treatment, there’s little point in diagnosing dementia.
However this report shows there are a whole raft of benefits to diagnosis which ‘directly counters’ these arguments.
The report reveals that ‘access to medication stands out as the single most important benefit’ however it ‘appears less important than the ability to plan, to access services and to adjust emotionally and psychologically’.
Bedroom tax campaigner takes protest to Westminster
Pembrokeshire bedroom tax campaigner takes protest to Westminster
10:02am Tuesday 19th November 2013 in County News
Campaign: Paul Rutherford outside the Houses of Parliament.
BEDROOM tax campaigner Paul Rutherford has taken his case from Pembrokeshire to Westminster.
The 56-year-old grandfather and his wife Sue provide round-the-clock care for their profoundly-disabled grandson, Warren, aged 13.
Their case, first highlighted in the Western Telegraph, has now been put forward by the Child Poverty Action Group as the very first judicial review challenge of the discretionary housing payment – known as the bedroom tax – on behalf of children who need overnight care.
Although the Rutherfords, who live in Clynderwen, have been successful in an appeal to Pembrokeshire County Council over the ‘spare’ bedroom in their housing association bungalow, Mr Rutherford has vowed to keep on campaigning against what he says is the injustice of the levy.
Families fear respite care cuts
Big issue: Families fear respite care cuts
Warwickshire County Council plans to cut £1.7m from its budget could leave carers at breaking point, reports Mary Griffin
“My whole world revolves around Aleisha,” says Rebecca Page. “It has to.”
Rebecca’s life plan has changed dramatically since her daughter Aleisha was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of three.
Seven years on, Aleisha is never left alone, needing one-to-one attention 24 hours a day.
Rebecca, who lives near Southam and left her career as a specialist teacher to become a full-time mum, says: “She headbangs until she’s stopped, she kicks and punches and she is extremely active, climbing up furniture.
“She’s a physically fit 10-year-old who functions somewhere between a baby and a two-and-a-half-year-old.
“She has no language but communicates through Makaton (a system of signs and symbols).
“You can’t turn around from her to run a bath. If you’re not holding on to her she’s gone.
“I can only sleep when she sleeps and then it’s like sleeping with a newborn – that half-sleep where you’re always listening out.”
