LGBT+ services

Admiral Nursing charity Dementia UK is highlighting LGBT+ History Month by listing services for LGBT+ people with dementia.  Some services are specifically for LGBT+ people, like Opening Doors which supports those aged 50 or more across the UK and has online support groups for people with dementia, while others like DEEP are generic but has…

Failed contracts – failing care

A freedom of information (FOI) request by a national newspaper has revealed an alarming growth in the number of care home and home care providers ditching contracts to provide care for local authority-funded individuals. In just 10 months last year, 1,939 contracts with local authorities to provide care were handed back, compared with 731 contracts…

Care home visiting

Government guidance on care home visiting in England was updated on 24 February, confirming that there are no nationally set direct restrictions on visiting in care homes.  The Department of Health and Social Care says it expects care providers to facilitate visits wherever possible and in a risk-managed way.  The revised guidance covers visits that…

LPS masterclass

New liberty protection safeguards (LPS) are expected to replace the deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS) shortly and a half-day masterclass will look at the law as it stands and cover the plans for reform.  It will look at the situation in residential care, the community and in hospital settings.  Among the topics to be covered…

Music in everyday life

Charity Music for Dementia has published advice for family and professional carers at home on its website.  It emphasises that carers of both kinds do not have to be trained musicians in order to make music part of the care they provide. The advice page prompts carers of a person with dementia to think about…

Quality of life resource

London housing and care provider Octavia and St Christopher’s Hospice are launching a resource to help care teams promote a better quality of life for people towards the end of their lives. The “Better Lives, Better Endings” resource is aimed at care teams working in extra care housing and includes a range of tools to…

Risk raised after Covid

A major research study published in the BMJ has shown that people were at higher risk of developing dementia following a Covid-19 infection.  Scientists found that almost a third of older adults (32%) who got Covid-19 in 2020 went on to develop at least one new medical condition in the months after infection, compared with…