Category Archives: bereavement

Identifying and supporting informal carers

April 6, 2014   bereavement, Carers, family, Older care, Scotland

Carers need to be encouraged to see themselves as carers

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Young carer

Image credit: Produnis

In this guest post, Dr Emma Carduff and Dr Anne Finucane, co-authors on a new paper published today in BMC Family Practice explain why it’s important to support the carers of people approaching the end of their lives.

Approx. 10% of the UK population have an unpaid caring role for a family member or friend. Many of these carers make a significant contribution to supporting people who are approaching the end of their lives.  With increasing numbers of older and frailer people in the population, informal carers will play a vital role in caring for family members as health deteriorates and end of life approaches. In particular, care from informal carers, who are generally family members, is essential for those who wish to be cared for in their own home.

Carers can experience poor physical and psychosocial wellbeing, yet they remain largely unsupported by health and social services. It is essential that carers are supported both to  maintain their own health and wellbeing and to care for their family member or friend. However, before they can be supported, carers need to be identified.

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450,000 elderly people 'facing Christmas alone' this year

November 12, 2013   bereavement, Carers, Older care, Social care, ukcuts

Age UK is calling for elderly people to contact its support services rather than spend Christmas alone as research finds that many have no-one to turn to as the festive period approaches

 

Many elderly people are facing Christmas alone, the charity Age UK warned.

By Graeme Paton

6:30AM GMT 12 Nov 2013

More than a quarter of pensioners are not looking forward to Christmas because of loneliness and concerns that it brings back bad memories, according to research.

Some 26 per cent of older people – the equivalent of 2.8 million in Britain – suggested that the festive season would not be a time of happiness this year.

It emerged that some 450,000 over-65s faced the prospect of Christmas alone while large numbers of also feared it “brought back too many memories of those who had passed away”.

Research also found that almost one-in-five had concerns about not being able to get out because of the cold weather and shorter days.

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After The Funeral

September 17, 2013   bereavement, Carers

That time no one talks about

The Sound of Silence

with thanks from

I’ve always been one to moan about the lack of “me time” in my life. In fact, when I was having counselling for my Generalised Anxiety Disorder, one of the things we built in to my plan was to find at least ten minutes a day when I could be on my own and just be silent.

You see, I always used to crave silence. My job means I’m always talking, or surrounded by people who are talking, or who are playing music and sometimes the cacophony in my head would just get to the point where I thought it was going to explode. Add to that the spaghetti of worrying thoughts that I suffer from occasionally and you can see why I wanted to learn to meditate.

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