Author Archives: Maureen

Funding boost will help older in people in Norwich to conquer their loneliness

September 8, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, mental health, Norfolk, Older care

Norwich is one of 15 areas in the country to benefit from a £4.5m funding boost aimed at combating social isolation and ensuring that future generations have the support they need.

Monday, September 8, 2014
6:30 AM

Loneliness and social isolation, which are known to contribute to depression and poor physical health, can hit anyone – but older people are particularly at risk.

In Norwich there are currently an estimated 20,000 older people, many of whom face social exclusion due to ill health, poverty or simply because of the attitude of society towards them.

But from April 2015, and over the next six years, Getting On In Norwich, a partnership project led by Voluntary Norfolk, will receive £4,495,264 to improve the lives of its thousands of older people.

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Service users and carers help draw up homecare blueprint

September 2, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, Social care

Practitioners, carers and service users are helping the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence write guidance for improving homecare

 

  • Bridget Warr, chief executive, UK Homecare Association
  • Guardian Professional,
The members of the guideline development group are examining the issues and defining good practice, ‘with a reality check at every step’. 

Sandra is passionate about good homecare. Her mother had Alzheimer’s and Sandra watched carers come into the home for five years. Sandra knows, as an “expert by experience”, about the big homecare issues: reliability and flexibility of staff, continuity of care and the difficulty of having strangers in the house.

Sandra is a member of a group of people who are helping the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) to produce its first social care guidance, on providing care and support in people’s homes. By highlighting the issues they know about, she and the other carers and service users are keeping them at the forefront of care providers’ minds. It’s a complex thing to get right, but carers and users must be at the heart of improving service provision “inch by inch,” Sandra says.

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Why the ice bucket challenge matters

August 29, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, motor neurone

How motor neurone disease took my dad’s voice and independence

By Hull Daily Mail  |  Posted: August 29, 2014

Hundreds in Hull and the East Riding have taken on the ice bucket challenge to fight motor neurone disease – but few had more reason than Mail competition winner Charlotte Ashfield from Hessle. James Burton reports.

For many participants, the latest charity craze is just a bit of fun.

But when Charlotte Ashfield took on the ice bucket challenge to raise cash for the fight against motor neurone disease, it was personal.

Her father has been living with the condition for almost a decade, with the disease claiming his voice.

Hundreds in Hull and the East Riding have taken on the ice bucket challenge to fight motor neurone disease – but few had more reason than Mail competition winner Charlotte Ashfield from Hessle. James Burton reports.

For many participants, the latest charity craze is just a bit of fun.

But when Charlotte Ashfield took on the ice bucket challenge to raise cash for the fight against motor neurone disease, it was personal.

Her father has been living with the condition for almost a decade, with the disease claiming his voice.

With others finally taking notice of the devastating impact of the condition, she felt the urge to get involved.

Read More