Author Archives: Maureen
Carers’ needs part of bill to ‘transform’ social care
Carers’ needs part of bill to ‘transform’ social care
An aging population is putting pressure on the social care systemThe Welsh government is publishing legislation which will see carers getting the same legal rights to support as the people they look after.
The Social Services Bill will widen the range of people and organisations delivering social services.
It aims to give those in need of support greater choice and more control over the help they receive.
Ministers say it will also give people a say over the care they receive, and control over care budgets.
Under the bill, social workers will have new powers to enter homes and speak to vulnerable adults.
Around 150,000 people a year receive social care in Wales.
Carer to be hit by introduction of ‘bedroom tax’
Carer to be hit by introduction of ‘bedroom tax’
By Nick Spoors
Published on Thursday 24 January 2013 07:50
A carer from Northamptonshire said he would be financially better off with his disabled wife in a nursing home when a new bedroom tax comes in.
Tony Sharman, 60, gave up work to look after his wife Anne, 56, full-time at their two-bedroom housing association flat in Towcester following her second brain haemorrhage.
Mr Sharman sleeps in the second bedroom because Anne’s special bed, designed to prevent pressure ulcers, is too small for them both. She also needs too much medical kit to fit in another bed.
Yet from April, the Government will dock the couple £60 a month in bedroom tax from their benefits because they say Mr Sharman’s room is a ‘spare room’, even though he has to sleep in it, and the flat is therefore ‘under-occupied’.
Uneven dementia care 'disgraceful'
15 January 2013 Last updated at 08:33
Uneven dementia care ‘disgraceful’
By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
There is a “disgraceful” variation in the number of proportion with dementia being diagnosed across the UK, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.
About 800,000 people in the UK have some form of dementia, but most have not been diagnosed.
Estimates by the charity suggest 32% were diagnosed in the East Riding of Yorkshire compared with 76% in Belfast.
The government said the variation was “unacceptable” and caused “unnecessary suffering”.
Predicted levels of dementia across the UK were compared with data from GPs on the actual number of patients being diagnosed.
