Tag Archives: carers
Winterbourne View abuse report calls for changes to care
Review author Margaret Flynn: ”There can be no question that patients have been traumatised”
7 August 2012 Last updated at 12:35
Fundamental changes should be made to how care for vulnerable adults is commissioned and monitored, a report into abuse at a private hospital said.
The serious case review into events at Winterbourne View near Bristol comes after 11 former staff members admitted offences against patients.
Owners Castlebeck took “financial reward without the responsibility”, the report’s author Margaret Flynn said.
South Gloucestershire Council said it “fully accepted” the findings.
We need to address drinking problems in older age
Older people struggle with alcohol problems but despite the growing demographic, there is a big gap in services catering for them
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Tony Rao
- Guardian Professional,
There is a large gap in service provision for older people with alcohol problems. Old age psychiatry services in the UK are still only able to take on older people with dual diagnosis problems; those who have both substance misuse and an accompanying mental disorder such as depression, dementia or a psychotic disorder.
In theory there is no age limit for substance misuse services, but such services are often ill-equipped to manage the particular problems faced by older people. For example, they are also not generally able to deliver a home-based service, which is very often what is needed to serve the vast majority over 65s with an alcohol problem.
The last few years have seen new developments in alcohol services in the NHS and the voluntary sector. The voluntary sector has developed considerably, with service providers emerging in areas with high rates of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality.
Alzheimer’s disease drug shelved after trial failure
Two US drug firms say they will stop development of an Alzheimer’s drug because it failed in two late-stage clinical trials.
Bapineuzumab, made by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, was designed to halt build-up of plaque in the brain.
But it failed to improve cognitive or functional performance compared with a placebo in certain patients.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, as well as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
