Tag Archives: carers

CQC launches dementia services review

CQC launches dementia services review

The Care Quality Commission is to undertake unannounced inspections of 150 care homes and hospitals to review the care of people with dementia in England.

The news comes on the day the prime minister is hosting a G8 summit in London to develop an international plan to combat the condition.

CQC chief executive David Behan said it will be the first time the regulator has specifically reviewed care services for people with dementia. He said the CQC’s findings would create a national picture of “what works well and where improvements are required”.

iPads for kids with learning difficulties

MP visits Hackney primary school for launch of new learning scheme

 

DIANE ABBOTT visited a primary school to help launch a new scheme in London which will give iPads to children with learning disabilities.

The MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington, attended Grasmere Primary School in Hackney, east London last week Friday (December 6) to raise awareness of the project.

The initiative is the brainchild of Hearts & Minds Challenge – a charity dedicated to helping families of children with autism.

By donating old mobile phones to the charity, they can go towards an exchange for an iPad. The charity needs to collect at least 185 old, broken, damaged or unwanted mobile phones in exchange for a brand new iPad with autism-friendly apps and features.

Grasmere Primary School is well known for its inclusivity for children with complex special educational needs and its close working relationship with external professionals supporting children.

Stop trying to cure Alzheimer's – and prevent it instead

One of Britain’s top dementia experts says we’ve wasted BILLIONS on useless drugs

By Professor David Smith

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Danger zone: The brown areas of this brain show Alzheimer’s

We’ve been waiting for a breakthrough drug treatment for Alzheimer’s for decades.

An astonishing £25 billion has been spent worldwide on trying to develop one, and yet we still don’t have anything that can slow down, let alone stop, the disease.

It’s true that drugs such as Aricept may help some patients with their symptoms, but only for a short while.

That leaves patients and their families in the hopeless position of waiting for the drug companies to discover a treatment.

What’s so cruel is that no one has ever made it clear to them that it doesn’t have to be like that.

There are other options.

There are things that can be done to improve the situation right now — but governments, charities and other research bodies need to make a long overdue switch to a new strategy: preventing the disease.

What is amazing is that nearly all that  £25 billion has been spent researching and testing ways to stop just one thing that goes wrong in patients’ brains.