Staff crisis in council services

Social services directors said local council services were reeling from a staffing crisis at the start of the year caused by a combination of the omicron variant and long-standing recruitment and retention problems.  While the impact of the omicron variant is now subsiding, local authority social care services are unlikely to have recovered fully from…

Dementia worldwide

Numbers of people with dementia worldwide are forecast to rise nearly threefold by 2050, a new analysis suggests.  According to research published in Lancet Public Health, numbers will increase from an estimated 57.4 million in 2019 to 152.8 million in 2050.    The current pattern of more women than men with dementia looks set to continue…

Keep a steady weight

Weight and dementia has been in the news recently. One study published in Jama Network Open and based at McMaster University in Canada, showed that excess body fat appeared to affect not only cardiovascular risk factors but also cognitive performance. Another, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, suggested that although all 16,000 participants…

Care recruitment campaign

Bristol-based care charity Brunelcare has launched a recruitment campaign to attract new starters to begin a career there. More than 40 of Brunelcare’s existing employees feature in the “Part of Something More” campaign, which will run for 12 weeks with adverts on buses, billboards, rail stations and radio. Sandra Payne, director of nursing and care…

Target Healthcare REIT: Dr Amanda Thompsell

The Journal of Dementia Care is delighted that one of our Advisory Board members, Dr Amanda Thompsell, has been appointed by Target Healthcare REIT as an independent non-executive director. Dr Thompsell has practised as a GP, before switching to working in old age hospital medicine, and then retraining in old age psychiatry. She has significant…

Young dementia – training call

Submitting evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, the Young Dementia Network (YDN) has called for all training for the care workforce to include direct contributions from those with a dementia diagnosis. Specialist knowledge about young onset dementia and the ability to sustain empathic relationships were important qualifications for the workforce, YDN said in written evidence to…

Dementia and cancer

Alzheimer’s Society has teamed up with Leeds Beckett University to create an online forum dedicated to supporting family carers of people affected by both dementia and cancer. “Through the forum we want to provide carers of people with dementia and cancer with a social support network of others who understand the unique challenges they may…

Fall in research funding

A House of Commons debate to highlight the plight of dementia research heard how funding fell by 10% last year, despite a pledge from the government in its 2019 manifesto to double spending on such research. Leading the special debate last week Debbie Abrahams MP, who is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia,…

Mindful, musical walk

Older people, friends and carers are invited to a “mindful walk” with music and poetry in the Oxford University Parks on Tuesday March 1st.  A joint venture by Creative Dementia Arts Network (CDAN) and the university’s Gardens, Libraries & Museums (GLAM), the walk celebrates the work of Robert Burton, 16th century author of the Anatomy…