Category Archives: Older care

Carers on benefits have now become financially vulnerable too

February 4, 2014   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

THE ageing population is causing some of the biggest social problems we have had to confront in decades.

 

Even so, it is absolutely shocking to discover that the six million men and women who selflessly care for the sick and the elderly are suffering from serious financial hardship as a direct result of their actions.

  Carers are saving the state around £119billion by looking after their ageing loved ones in need 
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Prince Charles: good food in hospitals should be a priority

January 31, 2014   Cancer, hospital, Older care

Prince Charles said ‘food is a medicine in itself’ and called for greater emphasis on good quality hospital meals

By Alice Philipson

7:06AM GMT 31 Jan 2014

Prince Charles wants the NHS to see “food as a medicine in itself”, claiming better hospital meals would speed up recovery times.

He called for the quality of food served by the NHS to be made a “clinical priority” and said long-overdue changes could have benefits in other areas of health care such as malnutrition among the elderly.

It comes less than a month after the Telegraph disclosed that more than one in three hospital trusts have cut spending on patients’ meals in the past year.

Some hospitals are now spending as little as 69p on each meal, according to Department of Health figures, with meals at one trust described as “worse than prison”.

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‘Wealth of the Web’ Report Launched

January 30, 2014   Carers, internet, Older care

27 January 2014

Age UK London Calls for More to be Done to Help Get Older Londoners Online

Age UK London has today launched a report outlining recommendations for getting more of the 2.1 million older people in London online.

78% of Londoners aged over 75 are not online and a total of 661,000 people over the age of 55 in London have never used the internet; Wealth of the Web: Broadening Horizons Online tackles the issue of how to decrease these figures. Specific recommendations are made for older people themselves, the Age UK London Network, voluntary sector organisations, regional and local government, funders and those in the private sector.

The report looks at the obstacles to older people being online, which range from lack of interest to financial cost and lack of training and support as well as the drivers behind getting older people online which include family support and specific interests and hobbies.

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