yourcarehome.co.uk blog

Cross party talks on elderly care start this week - Let battle commence!

Cross-party talks on the future of elderly care funding begin tomorrow - lets hope they go better than in 2010 when the talks broke down due to major disagreements about Labour's so-called "death tax".  A working group put together by the Dept of Health has recommended that an elderly person should pay up to £60,000 towards their care, as opposed to the £35,000 currently proposed by economist Andrew Dilnot. Should make for a lively discussion.

Sharing homes - could it work?

The Guardian this week looked at a Homeshare project, where students or young people are placed in houseshares with the elderly.  The student will agree to live there and look after the elderly owner (a certain number of hours each week) in return for significantly lower rent.  Housing sorted for the student, care sorted for the owner.  

This is an interesting concept, but as with all live-in care situations, would have to be very carefully regulated to avoid abuse of the system or of the individuals involved.  Whilst the positives are clear (financial and social benefits for both parties), and advice is given about making clear rules from the start (how much care should take place, what form that will take etc), I can see no mention on the Homeshare website about CRB checks or any other checks which take place to minimise potential threat of abuse.  I am in two minds.  Whilst the case studies (across the world) illustrate how the scheme can work, I am left wondering if there are any stories illustrating how the scheme can go wrong...

Yourcarehome launches job vacancy board

As yourcarehome has grown, we have noticed that some of our users are using the site to contact care homes about any available vacancies.  We decided to help our users and the care homes out by making this process easier and creating a jobs board, where care homes can post vacancies and people looking for positions can find them without having to trawl the internet.

Our jobs board can be found on our home page.

CLS Care Services win Most Outstanding Care Home Provider

CLS Care Services have won another prestigious award for its services- ‘The Most Outstanding Care Home Provider’ at the UK Over 50s Housing Awards. This  follows CLS’ recent win at the Great North West Care Awards, where they were awarded the ‘Care Employer’ award.  Congratulations to all at CLS!

More information about CLS Care Services

Funding cuts hit front line services for the elderly - surprise?

The Telegraph reported today that Paul Burstow the care services minister has admitted that cuts in council spending are directly impacting on the elderly, as councils are reducing their nursing and care home budgets by hundreds of millions of pounds.  He is demanding to know why the £2 billion allocated to support adult social care has not reached the front line.  

Well, in light of the fact that councils were already in deep crisis over elderly care and the fact that the elderly are unable to make their views about cuts known by camping out in front of St Pauls, perhaps we should be demanding why this £2 billion wasn't ringfenced in the first place, to ensure that it could not be used to plug gaps in other areas of council spending.

Meanwhile, the Coalition's answer to this dire state of emergency is to promise a white paper setting out really firm plans...next Spring...again...

Considering a Retirement Village?

If you are looking for alternative care options, it is vital that you consider all the options.  If you are concerned about losing equity in your property, you may like to look at retirement villages.  Retirement Villages, also known as retirement communities or care villages are relatively new to the UK but are growing quickly, offering a variety of housing types, an extended range of facilities for older people, and attractive settings.

Read all you need to know about Retirement villages

Congratulations to Care UK and Barchester!

Congratulations to Care UK and Barchester for achieving second and third place in LAING'S HEALTHCARE 20, a list of the twenty most important providers operating in UK healthcare today! 

Ten Facts about Hearing Loss

If you care for anyone over the age of 65 or you yourself experience signs of hearing loss, it useful to understand the condition. Joan McKechnie (BSc Hons Audiology & Speech Pathology) from Hearing Direct.com has provided us with 10 facts about hearing loss which help to dispel the myths about hearing loss. 

Read Ten Facts about Hearing Loss

At a Southern Cross care home? Find out whose taking over...

This week, The Guardian are hosting a unique set of data on the future of each Southern Cross care home compiled and updated by Adass (the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services).  The data allows you to find your relevant care home and then provides contact details for the care home and the relevant local authority and NHS Primary Care Trust as well as contacts at Southern Cross itself.  Vitally, the data also reveals the landlord for each home and the new proposed operator, as well as the intended date for transfer to that operator.

Visit the yourcarehome news for more information and a link to the data.

Isolation Week 20th - 26th June 2011

This week, a team of volunteers are taking part in an experiment run by Friends of the Elderly, to see how people cope with isolation.  For one week, they will be living alone, cut off from the world around them - no conversations, no phones, no internet or interaction with anybody else - with just a TV for company.  

Currently, over one million older people in the UK live isolated and lonely lives. A million more feel trapped in their own homes and one in five older people see other people less than once a week.

To make the volunteers' experiences more realistic, there are socks to fill with dried peas, beans and popcorn kernels which will mimic the painful sensation of walking on arthritic feet.

Distorting, fuzzy glasses give an impression of what it is like to live with impaired vision like cataracts or glaucoma.

And diving gloves will make it hard to pick things up or to manipulate simple items like a knife and fork as though you had arthritis.

"All the equipment is designed to reproduce the physical challenges of ageing as well as the mental toll that living an isolated life can bring." say Friends of the Elderly

 

Follow the experiences of the volunteers during Isolation Week