Thumbs up for Jim’s technology drive

Staffordshire County Council’s Assistive Technology Project Manager, Jim Ellam, has been praised for his promotion of assistive technology at the Smart Healthcare Live event, in a recent Guardian online article.

Jim spoke at last month’s conference, about the range of technology available to keep people out of hospitals and living independently in their own homes.

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Bringing down the cost of public services

Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) has launched its latest film Bringing down the Bill: Improving Efficiency in the West Midlands. 

The film demonstrates how IEWM is working with local authorities and their partners to help bring down the costs of local public services, and can be viewed on the IEWM website.  

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Services for Later Life 2011

Age UK is holding its first ever conference dedicated to promoting excellence in older people’s services on Wednesday 13 July 2011, at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London.


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Care at home breaching human rights

Older people’s basic human rights are being overlooked in the provision of care at home, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Interim findings from the Commission’s  major inquiry into home care, reveal significant shortcomings in the way older people are cared for.   These include:

·        People left in bed for 17 hours or more between care visits

·        Failure to wash people regularly and provide them with the support they need to eat and drink

·        Individuals left in soiled beds and clothes for long periods

·        A high staff turnover, resulting in some people having a huge number of different carers performing intimate tasks such as washing and dressing.  In one case a woman recorded receiving 32 different carers over a two week period.

The findings are early results from the Commission’s inquiry into the protection and promotion of human rights of older people in England, who require or receive home based care and support.  It will report fully by the end of 2011. 

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Research into Dementia steps up

More money and resources will be ploughed into finding the causes of dementia following the launch of a ‘Route Map for Dementia Research’, an initiative involving 17 experts and representatives from government, universities, charities, industry and research organisations.  The group will look at ways to work together to increase the volume and impact of dementia research, and improve the lives of people with the condition.

The Route Map:

·        pledges up to £20 million from DH over five years for four new National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Units

·        commits the Medical Research Council to increase funding for neurodegeneration research by 10 percent to £150 million over the next four years to 2015

·        boosts the number of experts in the dementia field through new Academic Clinical Fellowships

·        strengthens links between public and private research sectors to identify new opportunities for partnership

·        ensures more patients and carers get involved in research through the NHR’s Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network, which will facilitate research in the NHS and care home sector.

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Gardening and GPS make life better - case study

Staffordshire based community mental health nurse, Karen Phillips, gives her account of helping a service user with dementia to maintain his independence with the help of a gardening scheme and a GPS tracking device, financed by direct payments
Doug is a fit and able man in his eighties who has been diagnosed with dementia.

He enjoyed going out on long walks but stopped when he became disorientated and lost his confidence. 

Doug and his wife said he had always been very active and a keen gardener, but since moving to a smaller property he no longer had a garden to tend. They also said he often became fidgety at night and was frequently “interfering with things”.

The situation at home had become stressful and quality of life for the couple was poor.

I had recently set up a gardening group for three service users supported by one adult placement worker. A float of £300 was allocated to buy plants and equipment. After many hours of determined work the garden was turned into an allotment. The scheme is funded by direct payments based on £21 per person for four hours.   

I told Doug about the group two months after his diagnosis, and he was keen to attend. His wife was relieved to know she had two afternoons a week when she did not have to worry about him, but she needed help with the rest of the week. 

We discussed his love of walking and suggested using a BUDDI GPS tracking device, which would allow him to raise the alarm if he got lost, and for his wife to locate him if she wanted to know his whereabouts.

The device has given Doug the confidence to take longer walks if he chooses. He likes using the Buddi and wears it on a neck loop as part of his dressing routine each morning. He then puts it to charge when he undresses each evening.

The BUDDI can be bought outright for £750 for the life of the unit, or £299 plus £10 per month. The latter is the option chosen by the Enablement Team. Doug’s package of two afternoons of gardening a week and the BUDDI, costs £44.50 per week, whereas two days traditional day care a week would cost approximately £106 a week. 

With these two measures in place, Doug now has the type of active routine that he is used to.  His wife worries much less about him when he is not with her, and she says he is much more settled in the evenings. The added bonus is they now have more to talk about and life is better for both of them. 

Looking to the future, I would like to set up similar small groups offering shopping or coffee mornings, cinema or bowling sessions; for service users with dementia who do not fit into traditional day service provision. 

Contact: Karen Phillips, telephone: 01543 511078, email:Karen.phillips@staffordshire.gov.uk

Funding Commission's recommendations welcomed

Directors of adult social services have welcomed "without reservation" recommendations made by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support.  ADASS president Peter Hay said the report from the Commission published this month "signals what will become the moment when adult social care was put on a footing to become fit for purpose in the twenty first century.” 

The Commission led by Andrew Dilnot, was set up in July 2010 and asked to recommend a fair and sustainable funding system for adult social care in England.

Among the recommendations made in the Commission’s report are:

• Individuals’ lifetime contributions towards their social care costs – which are currently potentially unlimited – should be capped. After the cap is reached, individuals would be eligible for full state support. This cap should be between £25,000 and £50,000. £35,000 is considered the most appropriate and fair figure
• The means-tested threshold, above which people are liable for their full care costs, should be increased from £23,250 to £100,000
• National eligibility criteria and portable assessments should be introduced to ensure greater consistency
• All those who enter adulthood with a care and support need should be eligible for free state support immediately rather than being subjected to a means test.
  

The Commission estimates that its proposals – based on a cap of £35,000 – would cost the State around £1.7billion.

Recommendations will form the basis of future consultation with government.

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