Category Archives: Older care

Carers to receive advice in spotting house fire risks

Carers are to be given new advice on spotting those at risk of house fires, including smokers and those with mental health issues.

One person receiving care is dying from a fire every month in London on average, according to a London Fire Brigade (LFB) report.

It said in the last three years, 36 out of 119 accidental fire deaths involved people accessing some form of care.

The advice will form part of care workers’ inductions.

This includes those who care for people in their own homes, in sheltered accommodation and in care homes.

Norman Lamb, King’s Fund – Integration

September 11, 2012

Transforming Local Services
A reshuffle is a strange thing.

I’ve followed the health reforms pretty closely so I’m relatively up to speed.

But often, new ministers find themselves in departments where they know only the bare bones of the policy. And they’re expected to turn themselves into experts overnight.

I’ve been an MP long enough to hear my fair share of new ministers read out speeches in the Commons and clearly have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. The crueller members of the opposition can sometimes make it a bit of a trial for them.

But the machinations of government can’t just creak to a halt as the new people find their way around. So new ministers rely on ever-present civil servants to guide them. They rely on ministers who haven’t been reshuffled to keep a hand on the tiller. And they rely on their fellow new ministers to be conscientious, decisive and creative about their own parts of the portfolio.

Care wrangle has torn Sunderland couple apart after 65 years

They were childhood sweethearts – but a care wrangle has torn this Sunderland couple apart after 65 years

Florrie Graham, with a photograph of her wedding day in June 1946. She is apart from her husband Jos for the first time in 66 years.Florrie Graham, with a photograph of her wedding day in June 1946. She is apart from her husband Jos for the first time in 66 years.

Published on Monday 10 September 2012 11:56

INSEPERABLE throughout more than 65 years of marriage, an elderly couple have been left heartbroken after being forced to live apart after a wrangle over care funding.

War veteran Joseph Graham, 92, and his wife Florence, 90, are both devastated that she is not being allowed to move into the same care home as him, despite suffering from dementia.

The pair met as children growing up in the same Deptford street and later became teenage sweethearts.