Author Archives: Maureen
Dementia services in Norfolk boosted by £750,000 of government funding
Dementia care in Norfolk has been boosted by £750,000 of government funding, it was announced yesterday.
Barry Dennis at Wells Community Hospital. Picture: Ian Burt
Adam Lazzari Friday, July 26, 2013
9:00 AM
ADAM LAZZARI reports…
Tens of thousands of people in Norfolk will have suffered the heartache of watching a loved one suffering from dementia.
It is estimated, nationally, one in three people over 65 will develop dementia and in Norfolk, where there are more 63-year-olds in the county than any other age, it is a growing concern.
So, news that £750,000 of Department of Health money has been awarded to four Norfolk dementia projects will be widely welcomed.
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation was awarded £249,000 to make its dementia care unit at Hammerton Court in Norwich even more dementia-friendly.
UEA gets £2m to help improve dementia care
The study will be hosted by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where initial research will take place.
David Bale david.bale2@archant.co.uk
Monday, July 22, 2013
7:54 AM
UEA researchers have been awarded a £2m programme grant from the National Institute of Health Research to examine ways to improve hospital care for people with dementia.
One quarter of acute NHS hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia, but inconsistent standards of care, poor physical and mental health management and overuse of sedatives have been highlighted in national reports.
The five-year programme will involve a UK and international team of researchers with the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK as partners. It will be the first dementia-specific study combining elements of best care with a system for putting them into practice.
Programme leader Dr Chris Fox, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “An injury such as a fractured hip often leads to acute confusion known as delirium and other complications.
“On average, people with a hip fracture in addition to dementia stay in hospital three times longer than those with a hip fracture who do not have dementia.
Lonely lives of the rural elderly
Shop closures and bus service cuts causing social isolation says report which found half of over 75s living alone.
Elderly people who retire to the countryside face spending their final years in isolation as villages suffer cuts to bus services and post office closures, a report warns today.
Half of Britons older than 75 are living alone. The study finds that the closure of local shops and the death of loved ones leaves many without support or social contact.
It comes as the Government warns that too many rural communities have been failed by past decisions taken in Whitehall.
Ministers are launching new rules urging all government officials to consider the impact of their plans on villages and small towns from Cornwall to Cumbria.
