Tag Archives: carers

Carers are unsung heroes

December 23, 2012   Carers, Wales

CHRISTMAS is traditionally a time of joy and happiness for families

Saturday, December 22, 2012

South Wales Evening Post

 

CHRISTMAS is traditionally a time of joy and happiness for families, but Christmas doesn’t mean it gets any easier for those who need support to live an independent and fulfilling life.

 

  1. A range of social services are currently being delivered to more than 150,000 people across Wales. These include older people, people with learning disabilities, mental health issues or people with a terminal illness.

At some point in life, it’s likely we’ll all come into contact with some form of social services. It’s therefore important that the Welsh Government does everything it can to make sure the right support reaches those who need it most. Over the past year and half, we’ve seen much progress in this field.

We’ve also seen the continued roll-out of the highly innovative integrated family support services to bring specialist care for vulnerable children and parents. Some £4.5million has already been made available to local authorities to implement better services for vulnerable looked-after children, including £1.5million for breaks for carers of disabled children.

There are around 340,000 unpaid carers in Wales, usually family members or friends. These people really are the unsung heroes and at times like Christmas, we need to remember and recognise all the unseen work that they do. I’d therefore like to thank all carers across Swansea and wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mike Hedges AM

Assembly Member, Swansea East

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/

 

 

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Learning disabled and carers must be to the fore in reforms

December 22, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, disability, learning difficulties, ukcuts

Cuts to these services do not work.

The proposal to shut three day centres in Glasgow and provide other services “in the community” is billed as a reform, but in fact it is only a step in a process which has been going on for years, of trying to cut the cost of learning disability (LD) services and at the same time introduce “personalisation” as the means of meeting needs and allocating scarce resources (“Kelman condemns closure of centres”, The Herald, December 17, and Letters, December 17, 18 & 19).

The need to cut costs is real. Regardless of who is to blame for the current squeeze on local government resources, in the real world there is going to be less money to spend on all local government services for some time to come. It is therefore essential to focus resources on things which will do most good.

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Pioneering Dementia research projects receive £22 million government boost

December 21, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, DOH
December 21, 2012

Twenty one pioneering research projects to boost dementia diagnosis rates and trial ground breaking treatments have been selected to receive a share of £22million of Government funding, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today.

Visiting pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly’s UK dementia research centre, the Health Secretary emphasised the crucial role of medical research in making breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of dementia, whilst ensuring that research can help people with dementia live well with the condition today.

The funding was awarded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and was designed to cover all areas of scientific activity relevant to dementia, across the fields of care, cure and cause, including prevention.

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