As the Health and Care Bill reached the final stages of its progress through parliament on 23 March, Alzheimer’s Society urged the government to make last-minute changes to its plans for funding social care. The charity warned that up to 80% of people living with dementia would not benefit from a proposed cap of £86,000 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
All residents in care homes for older people will receive an additional Covid booster jab this spring, PM Boris Johnson said last week, setting out the government’s plan for living with the virus. But Alzheimer’s Society responded that the plan did not go far enough to protect people with dementia. While details of the additional … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
While UK government funding of dementia research is falling the US Congress has announced a $289 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal year 2022, including $25 million to fund and implement the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act.