Tag Archives: carers

‘Shocking’ bedroom tax should be axed, says UN investigator

September 11, 2013   Carers, ukcuts, Uncategorized

‘Shocking’ bedroom tax should be axed, says UN investigator

Housing expert Raquel Rolnik says policy could constitute a violation of the human right to adequate housing

Raquel Rolnik

Raquel Rolnik, UN special rapporteur on housing, right, with Anne Lear, a housing officer in Govanhill, Glasgow. Photograph: Martin Hunter for the Guardian

The United Nations’ special investigator on housing has told the British government it should scrap the bedroom tax, after hearing “shocking” accounts of how the policy was affecting vulnerable citizens during a visit to the UK.

Britain’s record on housing was also worsening from a human rights perspective, Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur on housing, said in a Guardian interview after presenting her preliminary findings to the government.

Rolnik, a former urban planning minister in Brazil, said Britain’s previously good record on housing was being eroded by a failure to provide sufficient quantities of affordable social housing, and more recently by the impact of welfare reform.

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Becoming a carer shouldn't mean the end of your career

September 11, 2013   Carers, health, internet, Social care

Jackie Ashley’s reflections on caring for her husband Andrew Marr have highlighted a critical social issue

 

 

Jackie Ashley wrote about the tough realities she had to deal with in caring for her husband Andrew Marr.

Jackie Ashley’s honest reflections on the tough realities she had to deal with in caring for her husband Andrew Marr, and the reaction of so many to her very powerful personal account have cast a welcome spotlight on a rising and critical social issue.

Whether through serious illness, disability or growing older, rising numbers of people need help with daily living. Most often it is family and friends who give the everyday care and support they need and, as Jackie so rightly observes, we need society to grasp the impact not simply on individual lives, but on business, workforce, personal, health and social services and all aspects of our lives.

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Dementia care home opens its own pub

September 10, 2013   Carers, dementia

A care home in Bristol has opened its own pub where residents can sit and have a chat over a pint of beer.

 

Humphry Repton House, which is run by the charity Milestones Trust, has become one of the first dementia care homes in the country to have a fully-working nostalgic pub.

Mike Jessup, activities coordinator, said: “It blurs the line between nursing home and normal life.”

Mr Jessup and his colleague Nicola Taylor came up with the idea after seeing how much residents enjoyed the ‘pub afternoons’ they regularly held at the home.

“We’ve opened three times so far,” says Ms Taylor, “and each time it has been relatives, staff and residents socialising together, there were no lines. Arthur spent all afternoon here with his daughters, and they said he was like a new man!”

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