Tag Archives: carers
‘Meal Mates’ feeding scheme helps patients get their meals
KING’S LYNN: Getting matey at mealtimes
Meal Mates feeding scheme at Tilney Ward in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Helen Wise the meal time co-ordinator with patient Jean Hill.
Volunteers at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been swapping their desks for dinner trays to help create a mealtime community on the wards and encourage patients to enjoy their food.
The Meal Mates scheme was introduced in August 2011, prompted by staff concerns at the national reports suggesting that patients in some UK hospitals were going without food and drink because nursing staff were too busy to look after them.
Although no allegations had been made against ward staff at the QEH, staff were concerned that on some wards, those with older patients including some with dementia, that nurses were unable to give patients the time and support needed during mealtimes.
Please remember mothers and carers struggling against poverty on this day
Bishop issues Mothering Sunday message
5:24pm Friday 8th March 2013 in News
THE Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Revd David Walker, is asking people to remember mothers who are struggling to make ends meet this year – 100 years after the campaign to re-establish Mothering Sunday was launched.
Rt Rev Walker said: “I’m not feeling very sentimental about motherhood this year, at a time when more and more mothers are needing to turn to church run Food Banks to see their children are adequately fed.
Archbishop of Canterbury attacks Government welfare reforms
Archbishop of Canterbury attacks Government welfare reforms
The Archbishop of Canterbury is supporting a campaign to derail a key part of the Government’s welfare reforms.
8:03PM GMT 09 Mar 2013
In his most significant political intervention since taking office, the Most Rev Justin Welby has warned that “children and families will pay the price” if plans to change the benefits system go ahead in their current form.
Mr Welby and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, have backed a letter to The Sunday Telegraph written by 43 bishops who say the benefits cuts will have a “deeply disproportionate” effect on children.
The move will come as a blow to Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who is attempting to steer the reforms through Parliament.
He has said the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill, which will cap benefit rises at 1 per cent a year until 2016, is needed to help get spending “back under control” and create a fairer deal for taxpayers.
However, Mr Welby, who will be formally enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on March 21, said the legislation will remove the protection given to families against the rising cost of living and could push 200,000 children into poverty.
He said: “As a civilised society, we have a duty to support those among us who are vulnerable and in need. When times are hard, that duty should be felt more than ever, not disappear or diminish.
“It is essential that we have a welfare system that responds to need and recognises the rising costs of food, fuel and housing.
