Tag Archives: carers

Review of stroke services across Norfolk and wider region

August 22, 2012   Carers, Norfolk, stroke

A major review of stroke services could lead to changes to patients’ care in Norfolk.

Kim Briscoe Wednesday, August 22, 2012
6:30 AM

Significant improvements have been made over the past four years in stroke services, which include stroke, transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) and rehabilitation services.

However, NHS Midlands and East has launched the review as it believes that despite having a network of stroke specialists, there are still gaps in care.

The review could see new hyper-acute stroke units established, or it could lead to specialist consultants working across more than one hospital.

However, it is still in the early stages and the current services offered by each NHS trust will be looked at in detail by an expert advisory panel, which will make recommendations for improvements. Final proposals for the new shape of services are expected between October and January, 2013, with a view to implementing the changes later in the year.

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What next for the independent living fund?

August 21, 2012   Carers, disability

The closure must be matched by a clear strategy detailing how devolving responsibility to local government would work

 

The ILF has been invaluable for people who have received support from the fund.

In the last days of the parliamentary term, amid the usual flurry of policy documents and statements, almost unnoticed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued a slim consultation document on the future of the independent living fund (ILF).

The writing has been on the wall for the ILF for some time. In June 2010 it announced it was closing to new applications for the rest of the financial year because of insufficient funding. In December of the same year the government confirmed the fund would be permanently closed to new users and funding for existing users would be maintained until the end of the current parliament in 2015.

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Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

August 21, 2012   Carers, disability, internet

Disability activists use social media to put care cuts on the political agenda

Success of Twitter-driven approach put down to ability to engage many campaigners confined to their homes
• Behind the Paralympics, the reality for disabled people in Britain 2012

 

Many disabled people who might otherwise have been unable to be heard have become engaged by campaigns on Twitter.

While there are fears that traditional methods of disability activism are on the wane, a new campaigning spirit is been forged using the social media revolution.

The past 18 months have seen the first flowerings of a new network of activist groups and a shared, inclusive approach that has thrust their engaging campaigning style into the public eye.

Galvanised by the government’s draconian welfare reform agenda, the new activism arguably is helping to renew a disability movement thought by some to have lost its way in recent years.

The staggering Twitter-driven success of the “We Are Spartacus” campaign in January announced the emergence of this new wave. This carefully planned viral campaign steered by a tiny band of activists almost single-handedly put the previously arcane issue of cuts in disability living allowance on the public agenda.

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