Tag Archives: carers

Dementia patients forced to rely on unpaid carers, poll says

July 6, 2015   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Featured Article, health

 

Three-quarters of GPs say their dementia patients are forced to rely on family, friends, neighbours or other unpaid carers, because they get insufficient help from health and social care services.

Stephen Blakeburn, 50, who cares for his mother, Jenny (left), 86, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2010. GPs believe dementia patients are being failed by health and social care services. Photograph: Alzheimer’s Society/PA Photograph: Alzheimer’s Society/PA

A survey of 1,013 family doctors by the Alzheimer’s Society paints a worrying picture of a situation in which patients are often let down or left confused by the health and social care system.

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Carer Pat Onions may be blind but still is a carer for her husband

July 5, 2015   Blind, Carers, disability, Featured Article, Scotland

SHE is one of an estimated 759,000 people in Scotland caring for a loved one who is elderly, ill or disabled, with the figure set to rise to at least one million by 2017.

Pat Onions is registered blind but cares full time for her husband David

HAVING suffered the sudden and devastating loss of her sight in her 30s, Pat Onions could have faced a very limited future.

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Leading Catholics write to Iain Duncan Smith to express fears over welfare cuts

July 4, 2015   Carers, Featured Article, health, ukcuts

Open letter appeals to Duncan Smith’s religious convictions in an effort to persuade him to reverse his austerity-inspired welfare reforms

More than 70 leading Catholics have written to Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, who is Catholic, to tell him they fear the impact of his welfare reform policies.

In an open letter the group, led by the thinktanks Ekklesia and the Centre for Welfare Reform, calls on Duncan Smith to redraft his policies “in a way that is more compatible with Catholic and Christian values.”

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