Category Archives: Featured Article

The unending grief of the dementia carer

September 13, 2014   Carers, dementia, Featured Article

Unpaid family carers shoulder two-thirds of the staggering £26 billion that the condition costs this country every year.

Posted on 12th September 2014 in Blogs 0
Pippa Kelly
Just as I was about to post this week’s blog I set it aside in favour of another.   I did so because of a remarkable interview on Radio 4 between John Humphrys, the Today programme’s resident Rottweiler, and Denise Stevens, who cares for her husband Mike, who has dementia.It’s only a few months since I devoted a blog to another Humphrys’ interview in which two people with dementia, and their spouses (and  carers) were given the prime-time 8.10am slot to explain what it was really like to live with the condition.   I described this as a significant step towards normalising dementia.

So I hesitated before inflicting John Humphrys, Radio 4 and the Today programme on anyone yet again – it hardly seems fair.  But it was such an insightful, moving piece that I felt compelled to do so, particularly as it has just been revealed that those with dementia and their unpaid family carers shoulder two-thirds of the staggering £26 billion that the condition costs this country every year.

Read More

Dementia care will reach many

September 12, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Featured Article, Norfolk

 Actress and comedian Helen Lederer speaks.

Picture: DENISE BRADLEY

Friday, September 12, 2014
6:30 AM

With one in three over-65s expected to die with dementia, Kim Briscoe finds out how we are caring for the growing number of people with the condition.

It can be a bewildering and frustrating condition, in which carers are put under an enormous strain and family members see the person they once knew disappear bit by bit.

With more and more people expected to be diagnosed with dementia, it poses a huge challenge to our health and social care system.

Read More

The Norwich bus service that provides vital help for disabled people

September 10, 2014   Carers, disability, Featured Article

The Norwich Door To Door community mobility bus, which transports the elderly and disabled to the supermarket.

Picture: DENISE BRADLEY

Wednesday, September 10, 2014
1:26 PM

Norwich Door to Door community bus provides a vital service for disabled people. As part of a series of features about the organisation, reporter Catherine Morris-Gretton went out on one of the buses to meet the people who rely on the service.

It may only be early September, but a group of friends who met on the Norwich Door to Door bus has already booked a Christmas meal.

Passengers also arrange their own monthly meet-ups and pass on jigsaw puzzles to each other, seeing the service as much more than just a mode of transport.

Read More