Welfare reform on the Web (September 2006): Care of the elderly - UK
Carefree Scotland
D. Scott
Public Finance, July 14th-20th 2006, p.26-27
This article evaluates the effectiveness of Scotland’s policy of providing free personal care for older people. Personal care includes services such as help with washing, dressing, hygiene and eating. This policy is judged to have been broadly successful, but there have been problems with the funding formula, the operation of waiting lists, lack of guidance on key aspects of eligibility, such as food preparation, and failure to increase funding in line with inflation.
Commissioning community well-being: focus on older people and transport
J. Manthorpe and others
Journal of Integrated Care, vol.14, Aug. 2006, p.28-37
This article draws on a series of consultations with older people in ten local authority areas in England on improvement of public services including transport. Results suggest that planners commissioning transport services need to listen more to older people, to take account of the impact of closure of local facilities, and to ensure that public transport is physically accessible and psychologically secure.
Delivering psychosocial interventions for people with dementia in primary care: jobs or skills?
S. Iliffe, J. Wilcock and D. Haworth
Dementia, vol.5, 2006, p.327-338
Psychosocial interventions are emerging as potentially important therapies for the treatment of people with dementia in primary care in the UK. They can be labour intensive and their effectiveness depends on the skill of the therapist. The problem is that the skilled workforce needed to extend psychosocial interventions beyond innovative schemes and experiments does not exist. The solution offered by the authors is the sharing and transfer of skills between different disciplines.
Extending quality life: policy prescriptions from the growing older programme
A. Walker
Journal of Social Policy, vol.35, 2006, p.437-454
This article introduces the work of the Growing Older programme funded by the Economic and Social Research Council from 1999-2004. The Programme has constructed a massive evidence base relating to factors which determine quality of later life which could be used to construct a strategy for the promotion of positive ageing. It is argued that such a strategy must include policies aimed at the life course as a whole as well as those directed mainly at older people.The five key elements of the strategy are outlined in the article and involve addressing inequalities in old age, improving the social, cultural, economic and physical environments in which older people live, enhancing the financial security of older people, extending opportunities for community participation, and improving services for the frail elderly in residential care.
Person-centre care [sic]: whatever else?
J. Smith
Caring Times, July/Aug. 2006, p.24
The relationship between the service user and the frontline worker is key to person-centred residential care for elderly people. Service users value relationships which involve personal qualities such as patience, compassion, sensitivity and empathy. Poor care is often led by considerations of organisational convenience rather than consumer satisfaction, and management practice tends to overlook the importance of relationships with clients.
Quality tosh - enough’s enough, or it should be
J. Burton
Caring Times, July/Aug. 2006, p.18
Presents a critique of the consultation document Key Lines of Regulatory Assessment issued by the Commission for Social Care Inspection. This consultation draft attempts unsuccessfully to distinguish between excellent, good, adequate and poor standards of care in residential homes. It is designed to assist inspectors in a new task of assigning quality ratings to care homes.
We’re all going on a Summer holiday
N. Valios
Community Care, Aug.17th-23rd 2006, p.28-30
Introduces the work of the Grosvenor Hotel in Westcliff, Essex that specialises in offering holiday accommodation to older people and people with disabilities, their families and caregivers.