Edited by Jane Hill editor@wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk
On World Health Day [7 April], the World Health Organization [WHO] is calling for urgent action to ensure that, at a time when the world’s population is ageing rapidly, people reach old age in the best possible health.
In the next few years, for the first time, there will be more people in the world aged over 60 than children aged less than five. By 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s older people will be living in low– and middle–income countries.
The main health challenges for older people everywhere are non–communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and lung disease.
by Lorna Prichard
A choir formed for people with dementia and their families has given John – as well as Julie – a new lease of life.
The Forget Me Not choir in Rhiwbina, Cardiff started life as a project with the Welsh National Opera (WNO). Half the members have Alzheimer’s, and half the members are their parents, friends and carers.
Government proposal would hit thousands of vulnerable young people, charities and campaign groups warn
Housing charities and campaign groups have been outraged by an idea floated by Downing Street to strip housing benefits from under-25s and make them move in with “mum and dad” as a way to “make work pay” and save the UK from growing welfare expenditure.
The proposal – which was floated by No 10 earlier this week but is yet to be developed into a concrete proposal – was announced just before a speech on Thursday in which David Cameron praised recent changes to the benefits system as “the most radical, long-term reform” in the UK for a generation. A Downing Street source said: “We are always looking at ways to change the welfare system to reward hard work and make work pay.”
