Tag Archives: care

Loneliness threatens life of elderly as Government mobilises to tackle problem

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Ester Ranzen, chair of Silver Line
A co-ordinated effort, bringing together care agencies and local authorities, to tackle loneliness amongst the elderly has been launched by the Government.
 For the first time local authorities will identify areas where older people suffer most acutely from loneliness to allow them to tackle the growing problem of social isolation and its harmful effects, announced Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
By mapping areas where loneliness is high, better care can be targeted at those who need it most – including older people.
Research clearly shows us that loneliness can affect health – it increases the risk of heart disease, puts people at greater risk of blood clots and dementia, and makes them more likely to exercise less and drink more. Socially isolated and lonely adults are also more likely to undergo early admission into residential or nursing care.
The new measure of social isolation, launched as part of the updated Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework for 2013/14, is part of a package of plans to address the challenges of caring for an ageing population – including £20m announced today to help thousands of older people stay warm and healthy over the winter.
Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said:
“Tackling loneliness, by giving people better care and improved services, is another step towards making the UK one of the best places to live in Europe for older people.
 
“I want the highest standards of treatment and care in our hospitals, in our care homes and in the community – and that means looking at whatever is needed to drive improvements.
 
“We need a measure of loneliness to shine a light on this problem and to know what we are dealing with.  Once we have this solid evidence, local communities will have new tools to come up with the right, targeted solutions to the problem.”
Further research shows that:
  •  more than half of those over the age of 75 live alone – with about one in ten suffers ‘intense’ loneliness;
  • half of older people – more than five million – say that the television is their main company;
  • 17 per cent of older people are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week, and 11% are in contact less than once a month;
As a result of this new measure, local authorities will be able to compare data about how lonely or isolated the people in their area report to be. This information will help them identify how serious the problem is in their communities and what action is needed to tackle it.
Laura Ferguson, Director of the Campaign to End Loneliness said:
“Loneliness is a major health issue. An effective measure of isolation and loneliness is an important step to improving the lives of the hundreds of thousands of older people who are chronically lonely. This national measure can only help those making local health and care decisions to prioritise loneliness as a health issue, and one that they will tackle.”
Chair of The Silver Line, Esther Rantzen CBE said:”Loneliness creates a loss of confidence, an erosion of self-esteem, so that the front door becomes as solid as a brick wall and as impossible to break through. Some older people told me that they have nobody to speak to at all for weeks on end.  
“And yet there are many varied projects and organisations all over the UK, often staffed by volunteers, who could break through this life-threatening isolation, if older people knew whom to contact.   That is why we are in the process of creating a special helpline for older people, The Silver Line, which pilots from the end of November for three months and will launch nationally next year, and which will offer advice, information and friendship. We will have an important role in linking callers to the existing services in their local areas and we hope that our high profile will enable us to reach people who are at the moment totally isolated. Our slogan will be, “No question too big, no problem too small, no need to be alone.”  
Paul Najsarek, ADASS and Corporate Director for Adult Services at London’s Harrow Council said:
“The development of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework for 2013/14 has been a genuinely collaborative process between the Department of Health and local government. We strongly support the emphasis on the greater alignment of the framework with the Public Health and NHS Outcomes Frameworks – shared outcomes will drive the more efficient use of resources, and more seamless, joined-up care pathways. 
“The framework’s focus on people’s experiences of care and support is welcome – in particular, a new measure of social isolation among users of care and carers will bring a renewed focus to efforts to support people to maintain the connections to their communities which are so vital to their wellbeing. This year’s framework marks a significant step forward, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Department to build on the framework in future years”.
This announcement comes as Jeremy Hunt revealed that thousands of people across the country will benefit from a share of £20 million of Government money to help them stay safe and well during the cold winter months.
Council projects will receive a total of £20 million from the Warm Homes, Health People fund. This will help them run innovative schemes to help vulnerable people keep warm and safe and prevent people needing to go to hospital during the winter months.
The new measure forms part of the new Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework and updated Public Health Outcomes Framework for 2013/14. The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework measures the quality of our care and support, and how well that care helps people to stay well and independent, and able to play an active role in their communities.   As the problems of  loneliness and social isolation can affect everyone, not just users of care services and carers, the Department of Health is working to develop a population based measure of loneliness.
The updated framework includes:
  •  Social isolation – a new measure of social isolation for users of care and support and carers, in response to the key White Paper commitment to address loneliness and social isolation (shared with PHOF)
  • Dementia care – a new measure to promote joined up working across adult social care and the NHS, to improve the quality of life and sustain the independence of people with dementia (shared with NHSOF)
  • Integrated care – a new measure on people’s experience of seamless, integrated care (shared with NHSOF)
  • Reablement – a new measure of the effectiveness of reablement care in supporting people to maintain their independence
 
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Plea from health professionals on behalf of post-menopausal women

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Health professional?Within the last week, a group of health professionals sent an open letter to their fellow specialists about the plight of those post-menopausal women reporting bleeding.

Post-menopausal bleeding indicates a gynaecological abnormality, usually a cancer growth within the womb.

The letter (BMJ 2010; 341:c7407) contains details about how many women reporting bleeding actually get referred for secondary care. Referral rates for patients with postmenopausal bleeding ranged from 66.4% in 55-64 year old patients to 40.1% in those over 85.

Last year the Eve Appeal highlighted the low profile from which gynaecological cancers suffer. Their campaign (with contributions from cancer sufferers and oncology nurses and specialists) focused on the low number of post menopausal women reporting bleeding to their GPs.

Gynaecological cancers are the world’s fourth largest cancer killer of women, with over 1 million women worldwide being diagnosed with a gynaecological cancer every year. Of the gynaecological cancers, womb cancer is now the UK’s most common, with 7,500 cases diagnosed nationwide.

The Eve Appeal, in conjunction with the National Forum for Gynecological Oncology Nurses (NFGON), are focused on improving the chances of women everywhere in beating these killers, by work in improving prediction, diagnosis and timely treatment.

The latest plea by health professionals highlights how much work has to be done – not only in getting more women to see their GPs in such circumstances but also in making sure those women are getting the treatment they need to beat gynaecological cancer.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley recently promised an improvement to the care framework within the NHS, which, if implemented properly, would improve detection and survival rates for womb cancer sufferers. It remains to be seen whether the financial pressure on the NHS, as with other public organisations, will be conducive to improving even the most vital of services.

To get more information about any of the gynaecological cancers, please visit the Eve Appeal at www.eveappeal.org.uk.

 

Growing elderly population will result in care shortage, warn Swiss researchers

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London: The growing ageing population means that there will be a shortage of people to care for them, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal.

Many people fear that population ageing will generate a demand for long term care that will outpace the supply of formal care. So to anticipate the future long term care needs of the oldest people, researchers in Switzerland suggest introducing the “oldest old support ratio.”

Their ratio is based on four age groups – the young, those of working age, younger retired people (aged 50-74), and the oldest people (aged 85 and over) – and provides information on the number of people potentially available to care for one person aged 85 or over.

Based on current trends, they estimate that the young retired generation will have to play a greater caring role in the future.

They illustrate this by using trends in Switzerland and the United States. For example in Switzerland, the oldest old support ratio has fallen from 139.7 in 1890 to 13.4 in 2003 and the same trend applies in the US. These ratios are expected to decrease to 3.5 in Switzerland and 4.1 in the United States by 2050.

These forecasts highlight the large fall in the potential pool of informal carers, say the authors. And they warn that failure to anticipate the consequences of these expected trends today will be a mistake that will be heavily paid for tomorrow.

The use of this new ratio should help make governments realise the implications of the substantial intergenerational changes that are occurring and aid policy makers to formulate adequate policies, they conclude.

“We need to face up to the huge cost of care in both the formal and informal sector,” add experts in an accompanying editorial.

In England it is estimated that 8.5 million people provided informal care in 2000, 3.4 million of whom cared for people over 65 years. Informal care is often unseen and unmeasured and usually falls to families, but as the retirement age increases and families become increasingly fragmented, we do not know if they will be around to help, or indeed, will be willing to help. And with the crisis in pensions, there will be less money for people to buy additional care.

“First world countries have swapped infant mortality and childhood illness for the burden of care of the elderly,” they write. “Caring for the oldest old is the price of affluence.”

Healthcare for UK elderly still patchy, says new report

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London: Good, respectful care for older people is still too patchy in Briton’s National Health Service, argue senior members of the British Geriatrics Society in this week’s British Medical Journal.

Last month’s government report A New Ambition for Old Age examined how the national service framework (NSF) for older people is being implemented and announced new aims and targets under three themes: dignity in care, joined up care, and healthy ageing.

So what has improved since the framework was launched five years ago, ask the authors?

A third of older people needing intensive daily help in England now receive this in their own homes rather than in residential care; delayed discharge from acute hospitals has been reduced by more than two thirds; and specialist services for people with stroke and for those prone to falls continue to improve.

But such health gains now need to be built on, say the authors. Despite older people being the prime users of health care and social services, investments have not been made in more specific services, such as general hospital care for older people.

Care for older people is still not sufficiently integrated, they add. The increasing emphasis in the NHS on moving patients rapidly through the emergency system towards discharge may benefit younger people at the expense of effective planning and specialist assessment of the frail and old.

The separation in the NHS of medical specialties from psychiatry is also hampering the provision of effective, humane, and responsive services for older people with mental health problems, such as dementia and depression.

They suggest that better coordination of care for people with complex needs will be achieved by strengthening commissioning arrangements between the NHS and local authorities, to ensure that social care is not provided without medical problems being treated.

The dignity of older frail patients is also infringed every day in many different ways, they warn. The establishment of a seven point plan to improve dignity in care is to be welcomed.

“This report contains much that is praiseworthy,” they conclude. “We hope that the levers set out in this report really convince providers of health and social care to reorganise their priorities.”