Three million unpaid carers spending own money supporting elderly

A quarter of the population is involved in providing some form of care for older family or friends, it finds.

And almost one in five of them regularly spend at least £100 a month.

The figures emerge from a report detailing how a “secret generation” of carers is helping prop up Britain’s crumbling social care system.

Of more than 2,000 people polled for the study, 24 per cent said they regularly care for an older relative or friend.

For some it involved short visits amounting to less than an hour a week but for more than one in 10 of those polled – the equivalent of more than six million people – said it equates to a commitment of up to seven hours a week.

Full Article on Telegraph

Why GPs need to be more carer aware

It was about six years ago that Ted Hanson started noticing changes in his wife, Pat.

"She was struggling to remember things, but she wouldn't accept anything was wrong," he recalls. "Then she became incontinent, and I was doing all of her personal care and everything around the house. I've got health issues of my own but I took it for granted that this was what I should be doing and struggled on."

The experience of Hanson, an 80-year-old looking after a wife four years his senior, and with few relatives living nearby, is common among Britain's hidden army of unpaid carers – a figure which could exceed six million people.

According to the 2001 census, one in 10 Britons is supporting a sick or disabled relative, friend or neighbour, and evidence shows that carers often suffer as a result.

Full Article on Guardian

Carer Support Wiltshire is encouraging GPs in Wiltshire to be more Carer aware. To find out more, visit our website.

2.4m parents juggling elderly care and childcare

A “sandwich” generation of people in their 40s and 50s is increasingly faced with juggling their own careers with care demands for both the older and younger generations.

Around a quarter of people aged from 45 to 60 provide active day-to-day support to their mothers and fathers, essential to enable them to continue living independent lives, the study found.

And one in five of them juggle growing commitments to the older generation while their own children are still living at home.

It equates to 2.4 million across the United Kingdom.

Full Article on Telegraph

Living with a long term condition - tell them what you need

The Department of Health is looking to develop a cross-government strategy on long term conditions. The aim is to get a clear direction on how services can work together to help prevent or delay long term conditions where possible and improve quality of life and independence for sufferers.

They want to hear the views of people who have a long term condition or care for someone who has; work with people with long term conditions or your work affects them, such as health professionals, commissioners and local authorities; or work in the voluntary sector, either in relation to people with long term conditions, or issues that affect them, such as housing.

Full Article on Public Service

State must pay family carers to look after elderly, say MPs

The current system means it is cheaper for families to put relations in the hands of local council-run care services, according to a report from the Free Enterprise Group.

The organisation said the Government could save an estimated £1.14 billion a year by funding families directly. Chris Skidmore, the MP for Kingswood, who wrote the report, said: “Where a local authority might otherwise be paying several hundred pounds a week for residential care, they could instead be offering a fraction of that to a relative to provide care themselves.”

Such a move would improve “quality of life” for the elderly, allowing them to stay at home “and be looked after by the people that know them best”. Charities and campaigners have warned that funding cuts have left council-supported services in crisis, with more elderly people kept in hospital for longer because of a shortage of nursing home places.

Full Article on Telegraph

Transforming Health and Social Care for people with dementia

Health and care leaders have come together to drive improvements in dementia services and deliver on key ambitions set out in the Prime Minister’s dementia challenge.

The Champion Group brings together representatives from the health sector, social care, local government and charities. They will be tasked with driving work on the ground to ensure that health and social care services get to grips with improving services for both people with dementia and their carers.

Last month the Prime Minister announced plans to make theUKa world leader on dementia. The programme aims to deliver major improvements in dementia care, dementia awareness and dementia research by 2015. Three ‘Champion Groups’ are being established to lead the work on each strand.

Full Article on eGov

Stroke patients 'abandoned' when they leave hospital: charity

Stroke patients need support and care at home in order to make a full recovery however many do not even have their needs assessed, the Stroke Association has warned.

When they do receive care at home, one in five have had some or all of it withdrawn despite no change in their condition, it was found.

A survey for the charity also found that health and social care services often do not communicate properly with each other leaving family and carers to coordinate between them.

Fewer than four in ten of those who received an assessment had been given a care plan outlining the services and treatments that would be put in place.

The National Stroke Strategy states that people should receive an assessment at six weeks of leaving hospital, again at six months and then annually.

Full Article on Telegraph