Tag Archives: dementia

Childline founder Rantzen plans Silver service for the elderly

March 16, 2012   Carers, disability, Older care
Esther Rantzen is launching a new telephone counselling service for vulnerable elderly people.

Esther Rantzen

Esther Rantzen is launching a new telephone counselling service for vulnerable elderly people.

Writing about her plans in the Daily Mail, the television presenter and one-time parliamentary candidate explained that she wanted the new charity to combat loneliness and the feeling “that if you ceased to exist no one would miss you”.

She said the new telephone befriending service would be called “The Silver Line” and would be a point for older people to gain information, friendship and help with serious problems, as well as advice about organisations to contact as the next step.

It comes a quarter of a century after she established Childline, launched in the wake of a BBC programme about child abuse.

Ms Rantzen, 71, said: “Loneliness particularly strikes older people who are used to having a purpose in life, to being needed.

“Gradually, the community they used to belong to has shrunk away to nothing; children have moved out, bereavement or divorce means their partners have gone ” .

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“The best dementia care unit in the country”

March 15, 2012   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Norfolk

New dementia unit for Norfolk is opened

By KIM BRISCOE

A £13m dementia intensive care unit has been given the seal of approval by patients, families and staff.

 

Opening of Hammerton Court at the Julian Hospital in Norwich. Sophie Hammerton. Photo: Bill Smith

Hammerton Court, next to the Julian Hospital, in Colman Road, Norwich, has 36 bedrooms, has been purpose built for dementia care and represents the largest single investment in dementia care in Norfolk yet.

The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust building, which was officially opened by Jenny Lay, the lord mayor of Norwich, was named in the memory of the late Cressida Hammerton, who worked closely with the trust and dementia services in Norfolk following the death of her husband, Peter, who had the condition.

John Batt, who has had dementia for three years and lives in Beccles, read a poem he had written about the building at the opening.

Mr Batt said: “I think it’s beautiful and I fell in love with it when I first saw it.

“If I could get in here I would because it’s such a lovely place.”

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Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust will host the launch a national campaign Triangle of Care

March 12, 2012   Carers, dementia, health, mental health, Norfolk

Triangle of Care March event

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS trust to launch drive to involve health care staff, people with mental health needs and their carers Edited by Jane Hill editor@wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust will host the launch a national campaign Triangle of Care, that calls for better involvement between health care staff, service users and their carers.
The event, which takes place on Friday 23 March 2012 is part of a wider–program of events organised to mark the public launch of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

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