Mental health patients ‘failed’ says report on Hellesdon Hospital
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said improvements were needed
A Norfolk hospital which looks after people with mental health problems is failing to meet expected levels of care, according to a report.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) report on Hellesdon Hospital said improvements were needed.
It said patients’ needs were “not always assessed in a timely way” and many care plans were out of date.
The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said it was addressing concerns.
The CQC also found that risk assessments were often incomplete, and that one patient inspectors talked to did not know he had been detained under the Mental Health Act.
Personal Independence Payments: a failing system is trapping disabled people without benefits
Bills still have to be paid and food still has to be bought.
By Frances Ryan Published 17 February 2014 13:34
Since the new Personal Independence Payments began to replace Disability Living Allowance, fewer than one in six people who applied have had their claims decided. While assessments drag out over months, bills still have to be paid and food still has to be bought.
While waiting for their claim to be decided, people are losing out on vital support.
Paul Richardson* has just got off the phone with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It was another phone call trying to check on the progress of his daughter Jennifer’s application for the new disability benefit, the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but it was another conversation that got them nowhere.
Jennifer has borderline personality disorder and has made two suicide attempts since she left school. She’s now 22 and this year moved back to live with her parents. She finds it difficult to talk to strangers and her mum and dad have been dealing with the PIP process as much as they can on her behalf. The process has been difficult from the offset when they had their first meeting at home in November.
Moves to tackle isolation of carers extended
A BID to banish isolation among unpaid carers and help them overcome the day-to-day pressures of looking after a loved one is to be extended in North Yorkshire.
Published on the 18 February
2014
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The decision to extend the project across the whole of Harrogate and Ripon follows a six-month pilot project which supported more than 140 carers-in-need across south Harrogate – resulting in half getting help for the very first time – and follows a Yorkshire Post campaign to highlight the shocking scale of loneliness in the region.
The programme of support – run by charity the Carers’ Resource in partnership with the local NHS and North Yorkshire County Council – is to be funded until March next year and expanded into north Harrogate as well as Ripon and rural areas.
The Carers’ Resource said the success of the project had created a strong platform to reach out to more people in the district’s growing community of carers at a time when Government cutbacks were causing unprecedented hardship for them.
