Latest News from Everycare
Allied Healthcare at risk of collapse leaving thousands of elderly people on alert.
Allied Healthcare could cease to operate at the end of the month, the Care Quality Commission has said and there is a ‘credible risk’ services could be disrupted.
Thousands of elderly people were put on alert yesterday amid warnings one of the country’s leading care firms is at risk of collapse.
The Care Quality Commission sounded the alarm after saying Allied Healthcare could cease to operate at the end of this month.
It said there was a “credible risk” that services could be “disrupted” if the company collapsed. Allied Heathcare provides home care – help with washing, feeding and dressing – for 9,300 people in 84 councils across England. The company, which has been struggling with debts, employs 8,000 people. Councils have a duty by law to continue to provide care if a private firm goes bust.
For more on this story visit the Daily Mirror Website.
Everycare home care and live in care services can enable people to stay at home during the most challenging period of their lives.
Doctors are being encouraged to discuss people’s end of life choices much earlier with them and part of this discussion will involve where and how people spend their final days.
Doctors need to get better at having difficult conversations with dying patients and not just in their final days, according to a report from the Royal College of Physicians.
It says doctors should talk to people who could die within 12 months, who may be frail or terminally ill, and give them choices over their future care. But the report says that rarely happens and doctors should be more proactive.It recommends involving family, friends and carers in the conversation too.
The report, Talking about dying, gathered the views of patients, trainees and doctors on how to begin conversations about the end of someone’s life. To read more about this story visit the BBC website.
To find out more about Everycare home care and live in care services and how they can help you stay at home.
People with dementia are being given the opportunity to lead and manage research into the disease, with the help of £700,000 from the National Lottery.
The ground-breaking new project Dementia Enquirers will give people with dementia the chance to undertake their own research into the condition, rather than just being participants. The project will work with DEEP, a UK-wide network of more than a hundred community groups and Innovations in Dementia. They will be able to identify research priorities and plan and carry out their own research.
It envisages using university researchers as advisors or with specified roles within the projects. People involved in DEEP will be supported and trained to capture and share their findings in a creative way such as through film, music, poetry and photography.
Rachael Litherland, director of Innovations in Dementia, said: “We are so proud to have been awarded this National Lottery grant, and excited to be undertaking such ground-breaking work. We are confident that the project can influence the prevailing approaches in research – while bringing new respect for the skills, expertise and resilience of those who are living with dementia.”
Joe Ferns, UK funding director at the Big Lottery Fund, said: “We’re delighted to be funding this project, which puts people with experience of living with dementia at the heart of research into the condition. Thanks to National Lottery players, this important issue is being tackled in a way which helps people to feel more in control of their lives.”
For more information visit the Homecare website
The symptoms of dementia can include:
Memory problems – People with dementia might have problems retaining new information. They might get lost in previously familiar places and may struggle with names. Relatives might notice the person seems increasingly forgetful, misplacing things regularly. However, we all forget a name or face once in a while and this is nothing to worry about. If it happens on a frequent basis, it’s advisable to visit the GP who can check why this may be happening.
Cognitive ability, i.e. processing information – People with dementia may have difficulty with time and place, for example, getting up in the middle of the night to go to work, even though they’re retired. Also their concentration could be affected. There may be a difficulty when shopping with choosing the items and then paying for them. For some people with dementia the ability to reason and make decisions may also be affected. Some people with dementia get a sense of restlessness and prefer to keep moving than sit still; others may be reluctant to take part in activities they used to enjoy.
Communication – People with dementia may repeat themselves often or have difficulty finding the right words. Reading and writing might become challenging. They might experience changes in personality and behaviour, mood swings, anxiety and depression. People with dementia can lose interest in seeing others socially. Following and engaging in conversation can be difficult and tiring, and so a formerly outgoing person might become quieter and more introverted. Their self-confidence might be affected.
Dementia can be seen as a combination of one, or all of the above symptoms. If you or someone you know is experiencing one or more of these symptoms, which have been occurring for a while and are progressively getting worse, then please arrange a visit to the GP. There are many other reasons someone might be experiencing confusion or memory problems, so it is best to get them checked out and treated if necessary.
To find out more please visit the Dementia UK website.
