News

Helping your patients to manage their cognitive function 15th September, Cardiff

Special Offer for Carer’s – Delegate places at £75 We have a limited number of places available for carers at the special price of £75.  Please quote ‘Carer75’ in the discount code box when completing your online registration to ensure you receive the  £75 delegate place.

This workshop is ideal for any health or social care professional wishing to learn how they can support people with cognitive impairment problems.

It is particularly relevant to those professionals caring for people who have had a TBI, Stroke, have early stage dementia, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or Epilepsy.

Run by Dr Anita Rose, Clinical Psychologist, from the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery you will learn about:

• Brain function and cognition
• Factors that impact on cognition e.g. fatigue, sleep, pain and emotions
• Strategies for coping
• Explaining cognition to patients

Here are just a few comments from the previous workshop:

“Having a course constructed and delivered by a cognitive expert was a rare treat”

I enjoyed the day and gained lots from it”

To book your place go to http://guest.cvent.com/d/vdqlcl or go to www.communitytherapy.org.uk/events.html is the link does not open.

All delegates will also receive a free copy of the new handy sized booklet written by Dr Rose called, ‘MS and Cognitive Function – Top tips for promoting self care’, details of which can be found at http://guest.cvent.com/d/pdqpc9

The series has been designed to engage young people with relevant social and ethical issues. One of the key themes in the series is Young Carers, with one of the main characters caring for his father. The series is accompanied by a blog and a discussion forum to inspire debate regarding the topics highlighted in the shows.

Being Victor has the potential to make a strong impact amongst teenagers and improve understanding of the daily challenges that face young people acting as primary carers for a member of their family. As well as being watched by young people for entertainment, each episode can be used by youth groups and teachers wishing to engage with the topics covered. For more information, and to watch the series from 11.30 today, please follow the link below:

Being Victor

Here in Southwark we have been celebrating Black History Month for over 20 years. Black History Month is one of the key events supported by the council that engages with Southwark’s diverse communities to promote equality of opportunity, social cohesion, understanding and respect.

We hope that you will come along and support these events.

Our theme for this year’s programme is Journey: past, present and future.

The events reflect and represent Black History within Southwark, as well as celebrating the achievements of the African and Caribbean communities locally and across the UK.

There is a wide range of diverse cultural events in this year’s programme, with an emphasis on African and African diaspora fashion, black literary talent and family activities and exhibitions.

Black History Month is not only about the events taking place this month.

It is about making a positive difference and fostering integration every day.

It is vital we learn from the contributions that all our communities make and develop a respect and understanding of what makes our borough such a dynamic and exciting place to live.

Black History Month Brochure

From the beginning of November over 1,800 doctors surgeries will be showing 2 films in waiting rooms to help recognise new carers.

The main aim of the films are:

• to help carers identify themselves;
• to encourage them to speak to their GP;
• to sign-post them to The Trust and our websites; and
• to sign-post their local Carers’ Centre.

Finding ‘hidden’ carers is one of our charity’s main aims and, as you know, the surgery waiting room is an ideal place to reach this audience.

Do you care for someone with a significant learning disability or a form of dementia or someone who lacks the capacity to make decisions about their care?

I am writing to draw your attention to a survey on our website about issues carers face around mental capacity. You’ll find here

The Social Care Institute for Excellence has asked us to produce a guidance booklet and web-based resource for carers about mental capacity issues in health and social care. The survey has already generated a lot of interest and will help us to make sure that the guidance is as useful as possible.

Carers UK are holding a meeting near London Bridge on 28th September between 2.00 and 4.00pm to continue consulting carers and to provide an opportunity to talk about your experiences on video for those of you who want to. There will be a follow up meeting on 10th November to comment on the first draft of the booklet.

We have some money to meet transport costs and to pay for replacement care to free you up to attend the meeting. When you complete the survey please let me know (using the section at the end) if you would be interested in coming to this meeting.

Many thanks for your help

Jean Gould
Carers UK Specialist Legal Trainer

As we all know, caring can have a disastrous impact on carers’ finances. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers wants to find out from at least 1,000 carers across the country how the current economic climate is effecting their financial situation. These findings will be used to raise national and regional media awareness of this issue and will be fed into the National Carers Strategy consultation.

Here is the link to the survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9KX976C

The London Mental Health Carers Network has been in existence for several years and is hosted by the Department of Health Carer’s Programme (London). It is a network of carers, service users and professionals who work with families and carers in mental health services. The Network meets 4 times per year to discuss key mental health issues, participate in consultation and to share experience and good practice.

Participants include carers and carer-professionals, mainly from adult mental health services; we are looking to broaden the membership to include carers of children & adolescents with mental health needs, and carers of people with dementia.

The Network is contributing to London-wide work encouraging local authorities and other organisations to build services for carers (across all care groups) which will be sustainable during the difficult times ahead.

The next meeting of the Network is on 22nd September and will focus on two key areas: Carers of Children & Adolescents with mental health needs and Young Carers

This event is free of charge and is open to anyone with an interest in these two areas.

Regards

Sheila Lakey
D.H Carer’s Programme Lead (London)

Panna Kotecha
Project Administrator
Social Care and Partnerships - Department of Health (London Region).
5th Floor Riverwalk House
157 - 161 Millbank
London
SW1P 4RR
Direct Line: 0207 217 3046
Fax: 0207 217 3464

Carers are advised to be vigilant over the coming months to a scam involving electricity prepayment meter keys.

Criminal gangs have gained the ability to clone the prepayment keys used on this type of meter, which they use to offer fraudlent discounted credit to customers.  An estimated 85,000 households have been approached by doorstep salesmen since the start of the summer, according to industry body Energy UK.

But customers who buy the half-price black market credit could end up having to pay again for the energy use.  The gangs, who sometimes claim to be from the energy companies, typically offer £50 worth of prepayment meter top-up at half the price.  The salesmen then push the cloned key into the householder’s meter to add the credit.  Customers get their extra electricity but, since the credit is illegal, they may end up having to pay their energy supplier as well – effectively paying twice.

Since a fairly high number of carers in Southwark use prepayment meters, we wanted to draw your attention to this scam.  Energy UK has advised that no official sellers of electricity meter top-ups operate door-to-door and that customers are being asked to report to Crimestoppers anyone they know selling top-ups illegally.