Category Archives: Older care

Dementia care given priority in new NHS training guidelines

May 28, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, health, Older care

Department of Health training blueprint promises to give NHS education unprecedented focus and importance

Andrew Sparrow
The Guardian, Tuesday 28 May 2013

Tackling dementia and encouraging medical students to become GPs are among the priorities under a new framework for NHS training.

At least half the number of medical students must go on to become GPs, and much more should be done to increase awareness of dementia, an NHS training blueprint will announce today.

Getting more nurses to train in the community is also a priority under a new framework for NHS training.

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Pressures on unpaid carers as care cap system excludes all but a few.

May 21, 2013   Carers, dementia, Older care, ukcuts

Care cap becoming ‘irrelevant’ as ‘crisis-mode’ system excludes all but a few, report finds

The number of elderly people receiving help with their care has dropped by a fifth in just four years as cash-strapped councils have begun “rationing” support only to those at “crisis-point”, a report by a leading think-tank shows.

 

The report calls for a major overhaul of how funding is allocated

By , Social Affairs Editor 12:01AM BST 21 May 2013

Criteria for support have become so tight that long-awaited Government reforms, including a cap on the amount people should have to spend on care, could become “irrelevant” because only those in most dire need would ever qualify, the King’s Fund warned

A total of 231,000 fewer elderly people are receiving help with their care than four years ago despite a surge in the numbers reaching old age.

The report welcomes the reforms being implement in the wake of the landmark Dilnot Commission to prevent people being forced to sell their homes.

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Why don’t they listen to what carers have to say?

May 15, 2013   Carers, disability, family, health, Older care

True integration involves the NHS, local councils and families

Families are the biggest providers of care, yet carers can find themselves cut out of decision-making and bounced between different bureaucracies

Norman Lamb and Heléna Herklots
Guardian Professional, Wednesday 15 May 2013 08.30 BST

The 6.5 million carers in the UK providing unpaid care to their loved ones outnumber all NHS and social care staff put together.

Caring is a fact of life. Whether a partner falls ill, or a parent needs support as they grow older, or a child is born with a disability – it will affect us all at some point.

At times like these, families pull together to support each other. But too often they find that the services there to support them don’t do the same.

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