Author Archives: wendy
Care home nurses to be taught to play board games with dementia patients to stop them being prescribed chemical cosh
Nurses in care homes will be taught to play board games with dementia patients to prevent them being prescribed anti-psychotic medication.
PUBLISHED: 00:22, 16 June 2012 | UPDATED: 00:22, 16 June 2012
Nurses in care homes will be taught to play board games with dementia patients to prevent them being prescribed anti-psychotic medication.
Under a Government-backed scheme, they will be encouraged to help patients with hobbies such as baking and painting in the hope it will help their symptoms.
It follows concerns that thousands of the elderly with dementia are being given drugs to sedate them and stop them wandering off.
Such drugs – dubbed a ‘chemical cosh’ – have been found to double the risk of death and actually worsen patients’ symptoms leaving them unable to walk or speak coherently.
Over the next few month nurses in 150 care homes in the UK will be trained to care for patients as people, rather than just a condition.
They will be taught to find out what hobbies patients used to enjoy when they were younger and encouraging them to take part in the activites in the care home.
Work begins on new £850k respite centre for carers
WORK has begun on a new respite centre for people with disabilities and their families in Burton.
The Mail reported last month how Staffordshire County Council planned to build the five-bedroom centre in Hawthorn Crescent, Stapenhill.
It will replace the existing Stretton Edge centre, in Hillfield Lane, and will offer high quality, wheelchair accessible accommodation.
Staffordshire County Council said the £850,000 centre would focus on ‘dignity and respect for each individual and the highest quality service’, while providing a vital break for carers.
Andrew Clarke, whose 36-year-old son has Down’s Syndrome, is one of the carers involved in the project.
Alzheimer’s gene ‘diabetes link’
Scientists say they have identified a possible genetic link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
It has been known for some time that people with diabetes have a much higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but not why this is so.
Now US researchers writing in Genetics say a study of worms has indicated a known Alzheimer’s gene also plays a role in the way insulin is processed.
Dementia experts said more work in humans was now needed.
