Category: Long Term Care

Focus on the public face of dementia

iQoncept @dollar photo club
iQoncept @dollar photo club

 

Much has been said lately about the scourge of dementia in all its forms.And now,just a few days ago,Sir Terry Pratchett,author of the fantasy book series Discworld, and recently often considered a public face of dementia, passed away. He had been diagnosed in 2007 with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, an estimated 850,000 people currently suffer from dementia in the UK.The government is promising a new,long term strategy focused on boosting research,improving care and raising awareness of dementia. Not before time a deep searching light is to be shone on this growing mental disease which threatens to grow into a worldwide epidemic. Continue reading “Focus on the public face of dementia”

How to raise the quality of childcare and eldercare

A new website has announced its aim to raise the quality of care in the UK , and to transform the way people choose care. It claims this aim is precisely what  the Government wants websites of  its kind to help achieve. So the Good Care Guide has been launched to fill a perceived gap in helping the cared-for and carers find the information they need to make well informed choices of providers for childcare or eldercare.  To read more…

Elderly failed by NHS.It’s official.

A damning report was issued this week by the UK health service ombudsman:the NHS “is failing to meet even the most basic standards of care,” it accuses.In the report, Ann Abrahams writes that “the reasonable expectation that an older person or their family may have of dignified,pain-free, end of life care,in clean surroundings in hospitals is not being fulfilled.” Apparently, many are the scandalous cases of basic neglect leading to serious stress for the elderly patient and sometimes premature death.

You can check out a report from the NHS website here also a Daily Telegraph report of what a daughter describes as a ‘disgraceful’ care case

What nobody is prepared to tell you about funding fees for the care of the elderly

 

Today,it is feasible that you maybe one of the many families struggling to ensure that, as you yourself enter retirement, your surviving parent or parents are able to obtain the kind of care they need.In many,many, cases throughout the UK, family homes are being sold and life savings used to fund professional care at home or in residential care homes. What you probably don’t know is that you may be eligible to claim for NHS funding to cover some or all of these costs.

This is what the This is Money website has to say about this serious state of affairs.

‘The key point about NHS funding is that it is not means-tested, so the amount of money the patient has is irrelevant. Also, it does not matter where the nursing care is received.

You can still apply for costs if the relative is being cared for at home or in a residential home.

Be prepared for a long, drawn-out battle as the health authority attempts to bury you in bureaucracy.’

There is much more to read at http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/tips-and-guides/article.html?in_advicepage_id=102&in_article_id=500519&in_page_id=53965

This is such an important topic, frequently going to the very heart of your family financial security in retirement. If you find yourself in this predicament, you will have to fight for your family’s rights, as it is most unlikely that anyone will offer the financial advice leading to  appropriate  funding voluntarily. So until next time,soon…

Long Term Care:Will you be able to afford it?

Now that the battle lines have been drawn for the next UK General Election, the main political parties will be focusing their attention on attracting voters to their policies. High on the list will be the NHS, and what each will do for it given the power of government. Within the NHS there is the ticking time bomb that is the paying for Long Term Care for the Elderly.

We are already seeing something of the growing problem of caring for these folk. Many, today, can expect to live around 20 years beyond the current retirement age of 65. Most of them under the present rules have to sell their homes to cover the cost of residential and nursing care. Only when their assets have reduced to £23,000 will the local authorities provide any financial help.

The ‘would-be’ government representatives will, over the next few weeks at the hustings, be wooing the voters with their policies. The stark truth is that the problem of the growing number of people who will require help in their later years cannot now be ducked, as before. It now needs an early fix for the long term. So you will hear much talk of insurance schemes,death taxes and other means of contributing towards the care you may one day need. The debate will rage on.

For some more information on professional advice available on this and many related issues,you can go to the website  of Hillier Mckeown , Solicitors (please note – the 60 life has no business affiliation whatsoever with this firm , the link is intended as a helpful source of information).

In later posts we shall lift the mood a little!