Unwanted fuel grants could help vulnerable

WILTSHIRE Community Foundation is asking pensioners who do not need their winter fuel payment to donate it to help prevent vulnerable people from dying in the cold weather.

The foundation is running its Surviving Winter campaign for the third year. Last year it raised £70,000 and supported 338 households in Wiltshire.

It asks pensioners who can afford to live comfortably to donate their Government winter fuel payment to the foundation, who will then distribute it to elderly and vulnerable people who need help to pay their fuel bills.

Full Article on Gazette & Herald

Keep Warm Keep Well: Information for over 60s, low-income families and people living with a disability

Public Health England have published their leaflet which gives advice on staying well in cold weather, covering issues such as financial help, healthy lifestyle, flu jabs and heating.

View the leaflet

SURVEY: Caring for someone with dementia?

With our ageing population, dementia is becoming an increasingly significant issue in the workplace as more and more people are combining work and caring for older, sick or disabled parents and other loved ones.

Dementia is a growing challenge not just for public services but also for families and employers. Employers for Carers and Carers UK are conducting this piece of research to improve our understanding of:

• The key issues and support needs for employees combining work and caring for someone with dementia.
• Practical ways in which employers and other parties can help.
• Pressures which can cause people to leave work to care and how these can be addressed.

This is a short survey that can be completed in about 10 minutes. Carers UK is also conducting wider research into the impact of caring but this survey focusses specifically on people who are (or have recently been) both working and caring for someone with dementia.

Take the survey

Government plans for care bill cap 'misleading'

Elderly people will have to spend nearly twice as much on care bills as previously thought before qualifying for state help, a study suggests.

The Coalition’s pledge to overhaul care by introducing a £72,000 cap on care costs is misleading because it excludes tens of thousands of pounds in accommodation fees, it was claimed.

The research found that the cost of care itself amounted to only 49 per cent of an average overall annual bill of £28,367.

Full Article on Telegraph

Carer-friendly policies needed to relieve pressure on the 'sandwich generation'

Britain's cost-of-living crisis is fast becoming a key battleground area on which the next general election will be fought. As parties gear up for 2015, Labour has promised to alleviate the strain on hard-working parents with an increase in state-funded childcare. Hard on its heels, the coalition also proposes to extend the hours of free childcare to parents with two-year-olds.

While affordable childcare has long been recognised as key to our economic infrastructure, there's a fast-growing group for whom no such election pledges have been aimed: the sandwich generation – those who carry the dual responsibility of caring for young children alongside elderly or disabled relatives.

Full Article on Guardian Society

EVENT: The Elderly Care system and funding options available seminar

Do you need to know more about this country's elderly care system and the funding options available?

Are you thinking of selling your house or other assets to pay for long term care?

abdcare (a specialist managed and branded division of Awdry Bailey and Douglas Solicitors with particular expertise in elderly care) invite you to attend a seminar which addresses the issues surrounding this country’s Care System and how you or your loved ones may be affected should long term care be needed.

           ~ Please arrive 20 minutes beforehand ~ light refreshments will be available ~

It is advisable to book early. Spaces may be limited!

Wednesday 27 November 2013   ~   10.00am - 12.30pm.

Burbage Village Hall, 60 Eastcourt Road, Burbage, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 3AJ

Understanding the system and who should be paying for my long term care needs?

What strategies should be deployed to minimise the impact of care fees?

If I do have to pay the costs myself, what financial options are available to me?

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND AND RESERVE FREE SEATING YOU MUST GO ONLINE TO;  www.abdcare.co.uk (seminars) OR telephone 01380 722311.

EVENTS: Contact the Elderly tea parties

Contact the Elderly is a national organisation which holds free monthly tea parties for small groups of people aged 75 and over, who live alone and need a hand getting out and about.  Now two new groups are being set up in Devizes and Melksham, and the charity is looking to recruit both volunteers and elderly guests.

Volunteer hosts welcome a group of 6 – 10 older people and their drivers into their home once or twice a year for Sunday afternoon tea.  The only requirements are a warm heart, a listening ear, reasonably easy access to the house, and a downstairs loo.  Volunteer drivers take one or two guests to and from the party each month in their own cars and stay to enjoy the tea and chat.

For the elderly people, these parties are a lifeline of friendship – an ideal way to brighten up a Sunday.  For the volunteers, it’s a chance to hear plenty of fascinating stories, and make a real difference to the lives of some lonely older people.

If you can volunteer, or are in touch with potential guests, please contact the new local co-ordinators:

Devizes: Alison Radevsky 01380 722091 or alisonradevsky@gmail.com

Melksham: Martin Elson 01225 707534 or martin@elson.com

www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk

The first party in Devizes is scheduled for Sunday October 20^th, 2.30 – 4.30pm.

RESEARCH STUDY: Establishing Supportive Care needs for frail elders and developing an intervention to address these in older adult acute medical settings

If you are an older person in receipt of care or a carer of an older person who has been in hospital your views are important in this new research.

Caroline is inviting both older people who have been in hospital and are reliant on some help from others to keep house and care for themselves - (called living with frailty by some), and those who help in that care  to be part of a postal questionnaire.  

This questionnaire, over up to three rounds to a group of people with interest and experience in the care of older people, will help determine what are the important considerations in providing supportive care for older people while in hospitals. Supportive care is concerned with comfort and includes emotional, social and spiritual needs as well as physical needs.

If you would be interested in taking part, please contact

DR Caroline Nicholson, NIHR  Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

on 0207 848 3610 or email caroline.nicholson@kcl.ac.uk