Tag Archives: mental health

Government condemns ‘shocking’ Winterbourne View abuse

Government condemns ‘shocking’ Winterbourne View abuse

Secret filming at Winterbourne View appears to show patients being physically and verbally abused

A pattern of abuse at a residential hospital uncovered by BBC Panorama has been condemned as “shocking” by the government.

It comes after Bristol police arrested and later bailed four people over the treatment of patients with learning difficulties at Winterbourne View.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said he was determined to strengthen safeguards for vulnerable adults.

NHS South West said it had been “appalled” by the issues raised.

Respite breaks for carers across the UK at a Caister–on–Sea holiday home

Run by Great Yarmouth and Waveney Mind charity
Edited by Jane Hill editor@wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk
Carers are being offered the chance to take–a–break beside–the–seaside in a holiday home that has just opened. The newly refurbished house at Caister–on–Sea, offers respite breaks for carers, and is run by mental health charity Great Yarmouth and Waveney Mind.
The three–bedroom holiday home is the first of its kind in the region and is available for rent by any person or family who cares for a relative and is need of a respite break. The holidays are specifically aimed at offering carers a break, though they can choose to bring those who they care for on the holiday too.

Hitting the poor and sick again!

Housing benefit cuts undo a positive move on disability

For disabled people, the government is giving with one hand and taking with the other in its changes to housing benefit

 

Last year, when George Osborne swiftly laid out his benefit cuts on the table, he threw a small bone to disabled people living alone who require occasional overnight help from carers. He passed an exemption that meant from April this year, these people could receive the two-bedroom rate of housing benefit to pay for a room to be used by carers as required. For those who would find this extra allowance useful, it seemed like a small reprieve among the announcements of slashes to housing benefit; maybe those who need the most help and care wouldn’t do so bad after all. Osborne and Grant Shapps, the minister for housing, also said that the worst off and most afflicted would be looked after, and be free of the clampdown on housing benefit. Before the election, David Cameron promised to “protect the most vulnerable” – an assurance he has broken.