Tag Archives: carers

Carers Week 2015: Radio turns the spotlight on invisible workforce

Thursday 11 June 2015

I lost count of the times I cried

Three years ago I received a series of phone calls in the night. My 85-year-old aunt, who suffered from advanced dementia, had fallen over in her bedroom. Her carer, Tsitsi, had heard the crash, wrapped her in blankets and called an ambulance. The paramedics took four hours to arrive, so Tsitsi sat with her and called me hourly with updates on her condition.

Families shun care homes to look after elderly themselves

Overall number in care has gone up by just 1,000 in decade despite pensioner numbers rising by a million 

  • Proportion of older people in residential homes has fallen – despite predictions more working families would lack time to look after relatives
  • Better health and increased life expectancy likely influenced shift
  • But high costs and concerns over quality of care in low-paid industry beset by scandals may also be factors, say Office for National Statistics

Tens of thousands of families are shunning care homes to look after elderly relatives themselves instead.

Hospital sets up food bank

Mum Kayleigh Emmerson, whose son Connor was born weighing just 1lb 10oz, said she would go hungry in order to pay for her bus fare to hospital

Newcastle Chronicle  A food bank is to be set up at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital to help parents of premature children facing poverty
Expensive: Parents with babies in neonatal care spend on average £280 a week