yourcarehome.co.uk blog

Elderly health - Preventing a fall

With 3,000 people over 65 dying each year from a fall*, ensuring that you and your surroundings or that of a relative are as safe as possible is extremely important.  Even if you or your relative are in a care home, knowledge of how to prevent a fall could be vital.

We've come across a brilliant booklet which lists top tips for avoiding a fall, and has a checklist of how to ensure that your home or your surroundings are not going to contribute to a fall.

Visit the article in our Health Matters section for more details and to view the booklet....

(*Health Survey for England 2001).

3 out of 4 carers have significant psychological illness

The big news this week is that  levels of dementia cases world wide is set to double every 20 years, according to a study undertaken by Alzheimer's Disease International.  In the UK, 700,000 people currently have a form of dementia, and over the next 20 years, this will rise to almost one million.

Statistics like that are pretty hard to take on board - it's a massive number of people and an incredibly significant rise, which could lead to a meltdown of care services which are already in crisis.  

But we all know that the care system needs a major overhaul, and reports and industry experts have been warning about the impact of dementia increases for years.

But there was one point made in the report which I didn't know and which had as big an impact on me as the dementia figures themselves ...

''Studies reviewed in the new report suggest that half to three-quarters of carers have significant psychological illness, while up to a third have clinical depression."

The fact that three out of four carers have significant psychological illness is incredibly shocking and unless there is a major change in how dementia care is funded and managed, there will be as many carers in need of NHS services as there are dementia sufferers.   But as the report comments...

''While these numbers are staggering, the current investment in research, treatment and care is actually quite disproportionate to the overall impact of the disease on people with dementia, their carers, on health and social care systems, and on society.''

How many warnings will it take before we realise the extent of the crisis which is just around the corner?

Do you need to arrange a care assessment?

Care assessments are often needed before an elderly person can begin the process of finding and moving into a care home.  But how do you go about arranging one and what do they involve?

Check out our information on how to arrange a care assessment and let us know your experiences of how care assessments are made....