Category Archives: Carers

Film highlights the reality of living with dementia

November 27, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia

Tuning In To Dementia

8:56am Wednesday 27th November 2013 in News  By Kate Liptrot, Health Reporter

The premiere of the film Tuning In To Dementia, with, at the front, Tony Neal, whose late wife Jenny featured in the film, next to Branda Pearson and Muriel Kelly, alongside other key people involved in the project.

A THOUGHT-provoking film which asks young people to consider the reality of living with dementia was premiered at a York school last night.

Starring students from Joseph Rowntree School, community members and some residents with dementia from Hartrigg Oaks, Tuning In To Dementia, aims to increase dementia awareness and build better understanding of the condition from an early age.

Over the next year it will be shown to 2,000 York secondary school pupils in personal, social and health education lessons and could then be rolled out nationally alongside a lesson plan.

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'Bedroom Tax' Leaves Disabled Fearing Eviction

November 27, 2013   Carers, disability, ukcuts

‘Bedroom Tax’ Leaves Disabled Fearing Eviction

 

11:00am 27th November 2013

 

Thousands of disabled people are cutting back on food and heating to pay for the so-called “bedroom tax”, according to a group of leading charities.

The chief executives of leading groups including Disability Rights UK, Scope, Carers UK, The Royal National Institute of Blind People and the Council For Disabled Children say the policy is having a “devastating impact” on people with disabilities.

More than 50 organisations have signed a letter to Iain Duncan Smith calling for immediate action to exempt disabled people from the Spare Room Subsidy.

They claim that it is harder for people in adapted housing to move and that “it is hitting disabled people who need an extra room for essential home adaptations or equipment which enable them to live independently”.

The letter to the Department of Work and Pensions states: “We have been deeply frustrated at reports that disabled people and their families are protected from this policy.

“The stark evidence since the policy was implemented in April clearly shows they are not.

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Hundreds attend first mental health campaign meeting in Norwich

November 26, 2013   Carers, mental health, Norfolk, ukcuts

Patients and NHS workers were urged to lobby commissioners and MPs at the launch of a public campaign to save mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Ian Gibson speaks in the crowded room at the Vauxhall Centre as the campaign to save mental health services is launched. Picture: Denise Bradley Ian Gibson speaks in the crowded room at the Vauxhall Centre as the campaign to save mental health services is launched. Picture: Denise Bradley

Adam Gretton Health correspondent adam.gretton@archant.co.uk
Monday, November 25, 2013
9:13 PM

There was standing room only as hundreds of people packed into a room at the Vauxhall Centre in Norwich tonight for the first Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk meeting.

The campaign was launched by front-line workers as a result of ongoing cuts by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), which is planning to cut £40m from its budget and reduce the number of inpatient beds by 20pc by 2016.

Officials from the campaign called on the government and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), which control local health budgets, to invest more in mental health services to put a stop to incidents where patients have to be placed on wards outside of Norfolk and Suffolk because there are not enough beds.

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