Category Archives: Carers

Review of national arrangements for providing information and advice to carers

August 8, 2012   Carers

Review of national arrangements for providing information and advice to carers

8 August, 2012

The department has today published a review of the service arrangements for providing information and advice to carers.

Access to good information and advice is important in supporting carers to get the best from their own lives and assist them in getting the right help to maintain them in their caring role.

Carers Direct provides an on line information point for carers, as part of NHS Choices, and a telephone advice line through which they can gain access to individual advice.

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Mental health spending falls for first time in 10 years

August 7, 2012   Carers, Depression, mental health, ukcuts

Total government expenditure on services down by £150m, the first reduction since 2001, says Department of Health report

 

 

More than 6 million Britons are estimated to sufer from depression each year.

Spending in real terms on mental health has declined for the first time in a decade, a report for the Department of Health has found.

Although one of the coalition’s first big policy announcements was to declare that mental health ought to have “parity with physical health in the NHS”, investment in mental health for working-age adults dropped by 1%, once inflation is taken into account, to £6.63bn. For the elderly the recorded fall in real terms spending was 3.1% to £2.83bn.

In total, spending on mental health services in England dropped by £150m, the first fall since 2001. However this drop comes after a decade of rising investment: in 2001 just £4.1bn was spent on working-age adults mental health.

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Winterbourne View abuse report calls for changes to care

August 7, 2012   Carers, Older care

Review author Margaret Flynn: ”There can be no question that patients have been traumatised”

7 August 2012 Last updated at 12:35

Fundamental changes should be made to how care for vulnerable adults is commissioned and monitored, a report into abuse at a private hospital said.

The serious case review into events at Winterbourne View near Bristol comes after 11 former staff members admitted offences against patients.

Owners Castlebeck took “financial reward without the responsibility”, the report’s author Margaret Flynn said.

South Gloucestershire Council said it “fully accepted” the findings.

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