Social & Health Services

  • ammendment on the health social care bill
    • Parliamentary briefing outlining the ammendment to the Health and Social Care Bill that aims to close the loophole of the YL case.
  • Major human rights victory for older and disabled people
    • Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable older and disabled people in care homes across the country will secure a vital safety net against abuse, neglect and unfair evictions , says an NGO coalition,(1) if Parliament accepts a Government amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill currently passing through the House of Lords(2).
       
      In a controversial test case last year (YL v Birmingham City Council)(3), the Law Lords confirmed that care homes run by the private or voluntary sector, but contracted by public authorities to provide residential care, are not covered by the Human Rights Act 1998.
       
      This loophole is effectively being closed by the Government’s amendment.
  • Social Networking Site for People Affected by Cancer
    • Cancerbackup, the information and support charity, has launched the first online cancer social network in the UK. Called What Now? because that’s the first question you ask when diagnosed with cancer, the website provides people affected by cancer with an unprecedented ability to connect, communicate and exchange information with one another. The new site allows users not only to access the high quality information provided by Cancerbackup, but to add their own stories, experiences, comments and pictures to the site and share them with other users. See www.whatnow.org.uk  
  • Making Recovery a Reality
    • A policy paper by Geoff Shepherd, Jed Boardman and Mike Slade has been published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. ‘Making Recovery a Reality’ is available price £5 from SCMH on 020 7827 and can also be downloaded, together with other information, from www.scmh.org.uk  
  • Transition: Moving On Well
    • The Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families have published a good practice guide for health professionals and their partners to help ensure that the young people with complex health needs or a disability and their family are better prepared for the move to adult care and that the adult care team has been involved in planning for the transfer.
  • Social Care Cuts Damage the Lives of Disabled People
    • Disabled people face poverty, social isolation and are more likely to have accidents because of harsher eligibility criteria for a diminishing pot of funding for social care support, says a study published by Leonard Cheshire Disability. ‘Your Money or Your Life’ calls on the government to ensure that disabled people are entitled to a minimum standard of care. In-depth interviews with 35 people living with a range of disabilities and circumstances emphasised that ever tighter criteria for social care funding had turned life into a daily struggle to survive. The study also found that when social care support was cut, family members were more likely to leave their jobs to become full-time carers, with families sliding into debt, poor health and endless worry. Family relationships and health can also deteriorate when unsupported informal care without respite is relied upon. For disabled people without family or friends to help, and without the money to buy their own care, the consequences are even worse. See www.LCDisability.org  
  • Clear Thoughts on Mental Health and Learning Disability
    • Clear Thoughts is a Department of Health funded project, run by the Association for Real Change, giving information about mental health in learning disability. For information see www.clearthoughts.info  
  • New Tinitus Website
    • A new online community from RNID providing support and advice for those with tinnitus is being launched using YouTube style viral films depicting the most common sounds heard by the seven million people who experience the condition in the UK. The question and answer section and forum aim to create an online community where people can share personal experiences, advice and helpful hints. See www.tuneouttinitus.org.uk  
  • Welcome for New Fracture Prevention Tool
    • The National Osteoporosis Society has welcomed the launch of a new fracture risk assessment tool from the World Health Organisation which could have a huge impact in reducing the number of people who break bones because of osteoporosis. FRAX indicates an individual’s risk of having a fracture in the next ten years. It relies on a combination of risk factors, such as bone density, age and parental history of hip fracture, to calculate a person’s absolute risk of fracture over the next ten year period. For further information see www.nos.org.uk

       
  • A Strategy on Palliative Care for Children
    • The Government has launched the first ever Children's Palliative Care Strategy, 'Better Care: Better Lives', that will enable some of the country's sickest children to be cared for and die in their choice of setting whether at home or in a hospice together with a further £10m per year until 2011 for children's hospices and hospice at home schemes.
  • Transplant Treatment for Diabetes
    • A new treatment will offer new hope for a group of people with Type 1 diabetes, Health Minister Ann Keen has announced. From 1 April, a specialised service at six centres across the UK will allow selected people with Type 1 diabetes who have suffered from recurrent hypoglycaemia or have had a kidney transplant to live free from the risk of blackouts and hospital admissions. People receiving the treatment will be injected with insulin producing islets, taken from a donated pancreas.
  • New Complaints System for Health & Social Care
    • A new unified complaints system for health and social care is to be introduced. The two stage system will focus on local resolution with, if this is unsuccessful, an investigation by the Health or Local Government Ombudsman. This will replace the separate procedures for health and adult social care which are particularly difficult for people who use a combination of services. The new system will be tested in a number of areas for 6 months before being rolled out in April 2009. See www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?RealeaseID=350980&NewsAreaID=2  
  • Alzheimer's Society Guide to Finding Care
    • 97% of people agree well-trained staff are important when it comes to deciding on a good quality care home. Despite this care staff receive no compulsory training in dementia – a condition affecting two thirds of all care home residents. The findings come as Alzheimer’s Society releases a new guide to choosing a care home, which features the essential issues to consider when deciding on a care home for a person with dementia. It lists questions families can put to care home staff and includes blank pages for notes on the places they visit. “Putting Care Right – your guide to choosing a care home” can be obtained by calling Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Helpline on 0845 300 0336 or downloaded from www.alzheimers.org.uk/puttingcarerightguide  
  • New Dyslexia Centre in Preston
    • CENTRA, an established local charity been working to support Education and Training in the North West, has opened a centre for people with dyslexia in Preston. They are involved with Lancashire Parent Partnership and various organisations across Lancashire. The contact details are CENTRA Dyslexia Centre, 18, Riversway Business Village, Navigation Way, Preston PR2 2YP. Tel 01257 244990 or see http://dyslexia.centra.org.uk  
  • Growing Divide for Care
    • The annual State of Social Care in England report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection highlights a divergence between those who are assessed by local authorities of being in need of care services and those who are not. CSCI finds clear improvements in the range and variety of services for those who do qualify for council-arranged care - more people using Direct Payments to manage their own care; individual budget pilots have been set up; councils are placing a greater emphasis on helping people to remain in their own homes and the number of carers receiving an assessment has increased. However for the first time CSCI explores the experiences of people not deemed eligible for state-supported social care, either because of “insufficient” need or because of their financial resources. It shows that many younger disabled people and frail older people are being ‘signposted’ to voluntary services. Many are forced to rely on help from family and informal arrangements which can break down at short notice. People unable to rely on families or friends and unable to pay for care services themselves are simply left to cope with everyday life, while some become virtually trapped in their own home. See www.csci.co.uk  
  • Transforming the Transplant Service
    • The Government announced it would back the recommendations of the Organ Donation Taskforce, which could see a 50 per cent increase in organ donation in the UK within five years - resulting in an additional 1,200 transplants a year. The report of the Taskforce, set up to examine how organ donation and transplant rates can be improved, has fourteen recommendations which include encouraging the NHS to make organ donation a usual rather than unusual event. A copy of the Taskforce report ‘Organs for Transplant’ is available on the UK Transplant website www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/default.jsp
  • Advice on Looking for Care
    • An up-dated advice booklet has been issued by the Commission for Social Care Inspection encourages people to ask the right questions, find out as much as possible about the options and then make informed choices about their care. ‘Social Care – choosing the right service for you’ is being distributed through doctors’ surgeries, advice centres, etc. and can be downloaded from www.csci.org.uk  
  • My Life, My Right, My Choice in Northern Ireland
    • Disability Action’s Centre for Human Rights for Disabled People has launched the ‘My Life, My Right, My Choice’ health campaign, calling for people with disabilities to have more effective choice and control over the treatment and care that they receive. Posters, a Toolkit including a CD and Choice Cards are available. For information see www.disabilityhumanrights.org

       
  • Carers Lose £11,000 a Year in Earnings
    • New figures, published by Carers UK on Carers Rights Day, Friday 7 December, show that the average loss in earnings last year by carers who had either to give up their job, reduce their hours or take a more junior position in order to care for sick, frail or disabled relatives or partners, was £11,050. The findings in the report ‘Out of Pocket’, come from a survey of 3,000 carers which shows the extent of the financial difficulties which carers face – particularly older carers in their late fifties and early sixties, and those who are caring for more than 50 hours a week. For further information about Carers Rights Day see www.carersuk.org/Newsandcampaigns/CarersRightsDay
  • 5 Year Plan for Cancer
    • Health Secretary Alan Johnson has launched a comprehensive five-year plan to further improve NHS cancer services supported by an investment of £370million by 2010. The NHS Cancer Reform Strategy contains a wide-ranging package of measures to tackle cancer and improve patient care. Key elements of the strategy include focus on prevention, faster treatment, extended screening, fast-track drug approval and extended services for the increasing numbers of people surviving cancer. The Cancer reform strategy can be found on www.dh.gov.uk  
  • Healthcare Commission Reports on Services for People with Learning Difficul
    • The Healthcare Commission said that sweeping and sustained changes are needed to services for people with learning difficulties if they are to meet the standards expected in the 21st century after the first audit of specialist inpatient healthcare services for people with learning difficulties, which included one of the largest inspection programs it has ever carried out. This found that most services for people with learning difficulties provide poor standards of care and there are unacceptable variations in the quality of services throughout the country. It said that, even in the best services, the safety and quality of care were not up to the standard expected of modern services. For further information see www.healthcarecommission.org.uk  
  • Support to Tackle Stress-Related Unemployment
    • The Departments of Health and Work & Pensions have announced a package of measures to underpin the development of a strategy for mental health and work. These include piloting an advice and support service for employers, especially smaller businesses, to help them to manage and support people with mental health conditions to remain in or return to work, trebling the number of employment advisers placed in GP surgeries, linking the Pathways to Work and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programmes, establishing a Mental Health Forum of those involved in delivering Pathways to Work to share evidence and experiences in relation to support for people with mental health conditions and changing to the process for issuing medical certificates.