Category Archives: disability

Loneliness is not a bug with a technological solution

Helping elderly people to use the internet is a good idea. But let’s not mistake broadband connections for social ones

Shar

‘Anyone who has spent time with elderly people knows the real issues are much more complex.’

In the UK, four out of 10 over-65s do not have internet access. At a time when so much of our lives is conducted online – the payment of bills, access to information – that should be a real source of concern about potential social exclusion.

But does this mean that by widening internet access, elderly people will feel more socially connected? Or, even, more radically, as a new report suggests, could this be a solution for loneliness in old age?

UKIP and Carers – the 10%

So 1 in 10 Brits voted UKIP last week? 

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Seems like the media can’t stop drivelling on about it. And people can’t stop drivelling about the media coverage.

Yet – amidst all the tumult and the shouting – here is one fact the media have missed reporting . As they have, consistently, for years and years and years.

There’s another one in 10 people in the UK who nobody mentions – the one in 10 who are unpaid family carers. On  duty – responsible for someone’s life –  many for the full 168 hours a week, week in, week out.  It is quite as dreadful as it sounds. You have difficulty with everything: working, sleeping, socialising, existing.  Paying bills. Getting out.  You don’t tend to get luxuries like bank holidays. And, no, you don’t get used to it.

Free app to boost meds adherence debuts in UK

New mobile app and website designed to help patients

 

W
World News
May 22 2014

Selina McKee

A new mobile app and website designed to help patients better manage their medicines and thus boost treatment adherence has been launched in the UK by Janssen Healthcare Innovation (JHI).

Care4Today Mobile Health Manager triggers medication dosing and repeat prescription reminders and also gives family members and carers the opportunity to provide support through a digital network.