Filed under: Cancer, CBD, Dementia, Disabilities, Alternative medicine, anti-inflammatory, Anxiety, Arthritis, Cancer, CBD, CBD oil, chronic pain, epilepsy, pain
19/01/2019 • 3:34 pm 0
Filed under: Cancer, CBD, Dementia, Disabilities, Alternative medicine, anti-inflammatory, Anxiety, Arthritis, Cancer, CBD, CBD oil, chronic pain, epilepsy, pain
16/09/2017 • 4:55 pm 0
Little over a year ago, Amy’s Place opened its doors to women overcoming alcohol or drug addiction.
The house, which was set up by The Amy Winehouse Foundation in the late singer’s name, helps women get their life back on track.
The women-only rehabilitation service is the first of its kind, offering a pioneering programme aimed specifically at the needs of female addicts.
For many young women with issues around addiction can also be connected to other “complex needs” such as “domestic, physical, psychological or sexual abuse; from eating disorders; from low self-esteem and poor body image”.
“The aim of Amy’s Place is to kind of bridge the gap between rehabilitation services and independent living,” Project Manager Hannah Chrystal told HuffPost UK.
Please click on the link to read more
Filed under: Disabilities, Mental Health, alcohol addiction, amy winehouse, drug addiction, rehab
08/07/2017 • 4:00 pm 0
Susan is in her thirties and has had mental health issues for many years because she has a slight physical disability. Because she cannot cope with her disability she has taken to drinking to numb the emotional pain, she still lives with her parents.
She is constantly depressed, has no quality of life and spends her days in her bedroom. The situation has got so bad that when she drinks she becomes like someone possessed. Her whole personality changes, she becomes violent and not in control of what she is doing. The police have come to the house often as the neighbours cannot take the foul language, screaming and shouting through the night.
So, what happens? The police take her away to a cell to dry out overnight. She appears in front of the Judge in Court the next day. All the proof is there (as this has happened many many times before) that this girl needs 24-hour help and support away from home. But what does the judge do? Gives her 20 hours community service and sends her home yet again.
Her parents in their 70’s are at their wit’s end, it will not end well. Either Susan will try again to commit suicide or her mother and father will end up in hospital or worse. The authorities know this and do absolutely nothing.
Filed under: Disabilities, Mental Health, alcohol, depression, mental health
29/06/2017 • 7:25 pm 0
The 10-month-old terminally ill boy’s life support machine will be switched off tomorrow after his parents lost a long-running legal battle to take him for experimental treatment in America
The heartbroken parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard have criticised doctors for refusing to let him go home to die.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-share-heartbreaking-final-photo-10711244
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, Charlie Gard
15/11/2016 • 6:54 pm 0
Wheelchair user Doreen Graham, 85, hasn’t left her flat in Lambeth, South West London, because the housing association that owns the block she lives in hasn’t provided a ramp to allow her to navigate steps.
Her daughter Laura Graham who lives with her mum describes the steps at the entrance to the building as ‘their very own Everest’. After 5 live Investigates made contact with Metropolitan Housing Association they have vowed to make the case a priority.
This clip was originally taken from 5 live Investigates on Sunday, November 13, 2016.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fz3c4
Filed under: Disabilities, Elderly, disabled, pensioner
31/05/2016 • 6:55 am 0
Families of victims of the Winterbourne View scandal have written to the Prime Minister demanding he shuts outdated care home institutions.
In an open letter they express “anger” at the “painfully slow lack of change” five years after abuse at the former private hospital near Bristol was exposed in an undercover BBC Panorama documentary.
A recent report revealed that some 3,500 vulnerable people with learning disabilities are still languishing at inpatient units despite a Government pledge to close them in the wake of the Winterbourne View scandal.
Now five years after the documentary was broadcast, families of some of the victims are demanding action.
Click on the link to read the open letter
Filed under: Disabilities, demanding action, Learning Disabilities, Winterbourne View
26/04/2016 • 8:15 pm 0
A popular YouTuber’s latest beauty tutorial sees her applying foundation with a beauty blender, brushing on mascara, painting on liquid lipstick — and opening up about what depression feels like.
Amy Geliebter 21, is incredibly honest in the witty new video, which takes the form of a standard make-up tutorial but actually gets real about the causes and symptoms of depression while addressing the stigmas surrounding mental illness.
The Pennsylvania resident jokes about her struggle with depressive feelings, applying cosmetics in made-up shades that describe how she feels inside as well as how others expect her to behave.
Click on the link to read and watch the video
Opening up: The video aims to help remove the stigmas around mental illness
Filed under: Disabilities, depression
16/03/2016 • 5:28 pm 0
From Susan Tee… I have been contacted again by ITV and Penny Marshall and her team with an urgent request this afternoon. She wonders if any of our members would be willing to talk to them in order to help with a prebudget news program illustrating how the disability benefits cuts will affect vulnerable people. She is looking at filming around Liverpool tomorrow afternoon (17th March 2016) and can travel a little if you can’t. Please contact the ITV team directly on the number below”
Call Reshma on 07966504154
Penny Marshall
Filed under: Disabilities, disability benefits
11/03/2016 • 9:30 am 0
A picture shared on Facebook appears to show female carer smoking next to an elderly man with bags piled on his lap
A Mencap support worker has been suspended after a photograph emerged apparently showing shopping bags piled on a client in a wheelchair, obscuring his vision.
The learning disability charity said it was appalled by the image, which shows a female carer smoking and talking on the phone next to an elderly man, who has several bags on a lap tray on his wheelchair. The image was posted to the charity’s Facebook page by Charlotte Shaw, who was concerned after seeing the image shared online.
“One of your staff in the Leicestershire area smoking whilst on the phone in Leicester shoving all her shopping bags on top of him with no care in the world,” she wrote in a post accompanying the photograph. “I don’t think she should work with vulnerable people,” she added. Steve Baker, regional director of services at Mencap, confirmed the charity had suspended the worker.
Click on the link to read more
Filed under: Disabilities, Disabilities
09/01/2016 • 2:03 pm 0
Leading charities have called on David Cameron to take “bold” action to tackle the growing pressures on health and social care, warning that vulnerable elderly and disabled people will “bear the brunt” if he fails.
A letter backed by nearly 40 organisations, including older people’s charity Independent Age, Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie, urges the Prime Minister to set up an independent commission to review the system. It warns there is ” no room for complacency” and points to official figures that suggest nearly a quarter of the population will be over the age of 65 in just over 20 years’ time.
The letter states: “We need to ensure we have an NHS and social care system that is fit for purpose otherwise it is the elderly, disabled people and their carers who will bear the brunt of inaction. ” Bold long term thinking is required about the size, shape and scope of services we want the NHS and social care to provide – and an honest debate about how much as a society we are prepared to pay for them. “It is vital that you meet the challenge posed by an ageing society, and an underfunded care system, head on and establish a cross-party commission to review the future of health and social care in England.”
It comes after former health minister Norman Lamb warned some experts believe there will be a £30 billion “gap” in NHS funding by 2020 despite the Government already committing extra cash.
Click on the link to read more
Filed under: Disabilities, Elderly, disabled, Elderly, social care
21/12/2015 • 7:57 am 0
Jeremy Hunt urged to investigate after trusts examine just 209 of 1,436 deaths of inpatients with learning disabilities
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is facing calls for a nationwide inquiry into the deaths of highly vulnerable patients in NHS care after it emerged that just one in seven such fatalities in hospitals in England have been investigated.
Data released to the Guardian under freedom of information laws show that hospitals in England have investigated just 209 out of 1,436 deaths of inpatients with learning disabilities since 2011. Even among deaths they classed as unexpected, hospitals inquired into only a third. Just 100 (36.2%) of the 276 deaths in that category were the subject of an investigation, despite longstanding concerns that these patients receive poorer care and are at higher risk of dying while in hospital.
“The findings from this investigation are very concerning,” said Prof Mike Richards, England’s chief inspector of hospitals. “We’re keen to work with the Guardian to look at the new information in more detail. This will help us to plan the review that CQC [Care Quality Commission] is already committed to doing.”
Filed under: Disabilities, Deaths, Learning Disabilities
03/12/2015 • 5:16 pm 0
A desperate father whose sons both have a rare muscle-wasting disease faces relocating his family to France for treatment if a new drug is not offered on the NHS. Rob Baker, of Colchester, Essex, said he will make the 285-mile cross-country commute so his sons William, six, and Isaac, three, can get a pioneering drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The disease, which causes muscles to deteriorate and leads to early death, typically sees sufferers confined to a wheelchair by the age of 11. And while the first treatment to protect boys from the worst ravages of the disease is now available in several European countries including France, Italy and Spain, Translarna is yet to get the go-ahead in the UK.
Mr Baker, 40, said the family face a race against time for one of their children, as the treatment is only effective in patients who are still walking. He and his wife Clare, a neo-natal nurse, are considering moving to France where the drug is available on prescription if the decision in England expected early next year, does not go in their favour. There, he will have to commute back to London every day or be forced to spend nights in London away from his family, to carry out his job as a tax advisor.
Click on the link to read more
William and Isaac Baker, pictured with mother Claire at Disneyland Paris, struggle to walk because they both have the muscle-wasting disease r Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, pioneering drug, Translarna
30/11/2015 • 4:16 pm 0
The High Court has today ruled that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has unjustifiably indirectly discriminated against unpaid carers for disabled family members by failing to exempt them from the Benefits Cap. The Court upheld the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s submission that carers’ Article 14 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights had been contravened by not considering the impact on disabled people.
Commenting in response to this ruling, Rebecca Hilsenrath, CEO at the Equality and Human Rights Commission said:
“We are pleased that the court has found the impact on disabled people of losing a family carer had not been properly considered. The effect could be profound and the loss of a trusted carer devastating.”
“The substantial reduction of income could jeopardise the ability of those affected to continue to care for severely disabled relatives. The court noted that the Secretary of State did not provide any information to Parliament about the effect on disabled people if their family carer were unable to continue.”
“The court also held that, rather than saving public money, it would cost considerably more for the care to be provided by local authorities or the NHS.”
Click on the link to read more
Filed under: Care Homes, Disabilities, carers, disabled
21/09/2015 • 3:42 pm 0
Jamie Appleby died in 2005 after being admitted to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, but his mother says she has had to wait a decade for an inquest
A mother whose epileptic and Down’s Syndrome son died in hospital 10 years ago has spoken of the heartache she has suffered waiting to find out what happened to her beloved boy. Jamie Appleby, 22, who also had a heart condition, died at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in November 2005, almost a month after being admitted with sickness and pains in his head.
His mother Angie Hobson, from Denbigh, has spoken to the Daily Post about the strain of waiting for the coroner’s office to hold an inquest and rule on a cause of death – a process which has not allowed her to fully get over the pain of her loss. In an emotional interview, she revealed her resolve had been stretched to breaking point as she pursued her quest for answers surrounding her son’s death. She said: “It’s like having cloud over you isn’t it – for a very long time. “You go through peaks and troughs with it. “Because each time there’s a preliminary hearing you have to relearn the case.
Click on the link to read more
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/jamie-appleby-inquest-glan-clwyd-10096263
Jamie Appleby, who died at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in 2005
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS Blunders, Down’s syndrome, inquest
21/09/2015 • 7:10 am 0
The dignity, heath and wellbeing of older people and those with disabilities in England are in danger, health and care groups warn.
In a joint submission to the Treasury ahead of November’s Spending Review, 20 organisations said the care sector was facing a “deepening crisis”. They have called for funding to councils to be protected, as is happening with the NHS. Ministers said investment in health would also benefit the care sector.
The government pointed out that plans were being put in place to ensure greater joint working between the two sectors that would relieve some of the pressures. However, the signatories of the submission, who include leaders of councils, the NHS, care providers and charities, said that they still feared for the future.
The document said that the market was “fragile” with councils forced to freeze fees and providers exiting the sector. The submission said this was driving up prices for those who fund themselves and leading to fewer people getting state-funded support. While the government has pledged an extra £8bn a year for the NHS by 2020, social care has received no such assurances.
Click on the link to read more
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34310729?SThisFB
Filed under: Care Homes, Disabilities, Elderly, Hospital, crisis, Disabilities, Elderly, NHS care providers
07/08/2015 • 7:33 am 0
NHS delays are leaving badly wounded Afghanistan veterans wheelchair-bound because many are having to wait months for prosthetic legs that actually fit properly, it has emerged. The girlfriend of one injured soldier accused doctors of ‘sheer incompetence’ after providing her partner with prosthetic limbs that are effectively useless. Clive Smith, who competed in the Invictus Games for injured veterans, has been confined to a wheelchair for eight months while he waits for his new limbs to be refitted.
The 29-year-old, who lost both his legs in 2010 while on a mine-clearing patrol in Helmand province, with 33 Engineer Regiment, says he feels ‘abandoned by the NHS’. ‘It’s been tough. I’ve been a full-time prosthetics user for four years and now I’m wheelchair bound,’ he said. ‘We were told we would get the same level of care for my prosthetics on the NHS, but it just hasn’t been.’
Click on link to read more
‘Abandoned: Clive Smith, has been confined to a wheelchair for eight months while he waits for prosthetic legs that actually fit properly
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, abandoned., Disabilities, NHS, prosthetic limbs, Wounded veterans
26/07/2015 • 1:34 pm 0
Sarah Long, oldest survivor of Morquio syndrome, pleads for NHS to provide expensive drug to treat condition
Every day Sarah Long becomes weaker. She cannot sleep for more than an hour at a time, loses concentration and struggles to speak. “I don’t have much longer,” she says with a remarkable lack of self-pity. At 44, she is by far the oldest person to have Morquio syndrome, an extremely rare degenerative impairment, caused by missing enzymes, that has stopped her from growing since the age of six.
Most people with the syndrome die in their teens from a heart attack or because their lungs fail. Only 88 people in England – and 160 worldwide – are known to have the syndrome and barely a handful have made it into their 30s. Long has earned her surname. But, then, since she lost her mother when she was a teenager, she has been nothing if not strong-willed. She puts her longevity down to “bloodymindedness, a strong heart, determination – that was something my mum taught me”.
Not only did she go on to defy every medical prediction and reach her 40s, she took a degree in sociology, then a master’s, and is now in the middle of studying for a PhD. It was the same determination that in 2012 made her choose to test a free trial of a drug called Vimizim. She had spent eight months laid low with pneumonia, a period in which she says she “didn’t function”, and felt going on the trial was worth the gamble.
Click on the link to read more
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/25/morquio-syndrome-nhs-drug-funding-sarah-long
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, lifesaving drug, Morquio Syndrome, NHS
14/07/2015 • 6:38 pm 0
NHS England has today promised rapid and sustained action to tackle the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs to people with learning disabilities after three separate reports highlighted the need for change.
Research commissioned by the health body and delivered in three reports from the Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, and NHS Improving Quality has found that:
One of the reports, authored by Public Health England, estimates that up to 35,000 adults with a learning disability are being prescribed an antipsychotic, an antidepressant or both without appropriate clinical justification.
Click on the link to read more
http://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/07/14/urgent-pledge/
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, Disabilities, learning disability, NHS England, over-medication
10/07/2015 • 12:30 pm 0
Dear friends not in wheelchairs, before you get upset about London’s Tube strike, please consider this from Leonard Cheshire Disability.
Filed under: Disabilities, Uncategorized, disabilites, wheelchair
29/06/2015 • 1:46 pm 0
Do you want to make people’s lives better?
Do you want to make your children’s and your parents lives better?
Are you concerned with the amount of medical mistakes in the news?
Are you a thinker or a doer?
Do you really care?
Click on the link and show me that you really care http://goo.gl/3rf9c7
Filed under: A&E, Cancer, Care Homes, Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, GP's, Hospital, Mental Health, Named & Shamed, NHS, NHS Blunders, Uncategorized, Whistleblowing, Do you care, making lives better, Medical mistakes
26/06/2015 • 5:04 pm 0
We have had a fantastic response regarding MyNotes Medical, but people are still unsure how MyNotes Medical works.
Here is a short slide presentation walkthrough how the programme will work. We NEED your support to help us to help you. Please pledge your support on our link http://goo.gl/3rf9c7 Thank you, Together We Can Make A Difference Joanna
Filed under: A&E, Cancer, Care Homes, Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, GP's, Hospital, Mental Health, Named & Shamed, NHS, NHS Blunders, Uncategorized, Whistleblowing, crowdfunder, Mynotes medical
27/04/2015 • 9:42 am 0
More than 400,000 diabetics are at risk of having an amputation because they do not get what are meant to be annual NHS checks on their feet, campaigners are warning.
One in seven people with type 2 diabetes and almost three in 10 sufferers with type 1 are not receiving the recommended annual test of the health of their feet, claims Diabetes UK. An “unacceptable” number of diabetics are missing out on the checks, despite the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (Nice) advice to the NHS that everyone with the condition should be tested each year, the charity says.
Click on the link to read
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, amputation, Diabetes
23/04/2015 • 8:46 am 0
This video really brings out the message, one day we will all be that much older but still the same person that took our first breath in life. This video should be compulsory for all nurses, doctors, and carers who work caring for the elderly to remember. Joanna
*****
See the contrast between the life Charles has now to the one he has lived. He’s being ignored, neglected and forgotten. Human rights give people the power to challenge poor care, and they apply to all of us, whatever our age.
Please share this film because people need to talk about human rights for older people.
Please click on the link to watch this powerful video
https://www.facebook.com/ageuk/videos/1004159362941871/
Filed under: Care Homes, Dementia, Disabilities, Elderly, Elderly, forgotten, ignored, neglected
14/04/2015 • 7:18 am 0
After a two-decade legal fight the health service has finally agreed to pay compensation to a family left devastated by medical negligency
A mother has won a £13 million legal battle against the NHS after hospital blunders 17 months apart left two of her children with cerebral palsy. Paula McKay was left devastated in 1991 when daughter Natasha was born severely disabled after she was starved of oxygen during her birth at the former Sharoe Green Hospital in Preston in Lancashire. But just 17 months later her son Patrick suffered a similar botched delivery which left him needing constant care. It was months before doctors admitted there was a problem, telling his mother he was simply a ‘lazy little boy.’
Now after a legal fight lasting more than two decades Mrs McKay’s has been awarded a multi-million pay-out on behalf of her children. She is believed to be the first person to be the victim of two such catastrophic errors, made by the same hospital maternity team.
Click on the link to read more
Paula McKay and her children Natasha and Patrick Jackson
Filed under: Disabilities, NHS, NHS Blunders, Cerebral Palsy, compensation, Hospital errors
03/04/2015 • 7:44 am 1
So sad, such a brave and beautiful young soul. My thoughts and prayers go to her family. Fly with all the other angels Hayley, RIP. Joanna
*****
A brave teenager who defied one of the world’s rarest genetic conditions has passed away at the age of 17.
Hayley Okines , who suffered with premature ageing disease progeria, was told she would not live past the age of 13. But she pushed on with life courageously and at the age of 14 published her autobiography, called Old Before my Time. However, despite pioneering drug treatment in the US that gave her a new lease of life, she was unable to conquer the disease.
Her mother Kerry Okines posted on Facebook tonight: “My baby girl has gone somewhere better. She took her last breath in my arms at 9.39pm x.”
Click on the link to read more about this remarkable young girl
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hayley-okines-dead-girl-who-5450699
Hayley Okines
Filed under: Disabilities, Uncategorized, Hayley Okines, premature ageing, progeria
02/04/2015 • 3:41 pm 0
On World Autism Awareness Week these four devoted parents speak about the challenges and rewards they face on a daily basis
Two weeks ago, the story of Odin Cumus’s birthday triggered a huge and heart-warming response worldwide. It also generated crucial awareness around the challenges someone with autism faces. In particular, the story struck a chord with many parents raising children with autism, who are familiar with the misunderstanding and exclusion autistic people and their families experience.
With World Autism Awareness Week this week, four parents have written about the highs, lows trials and rewards of bringing up a child on the autistic spectrum. By doing so, they have provided an emotional and much-needed insight in to what is often described as an invisible disability.
Please click on the link to read their stories
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/family/embrace-disability-4-parents-share-5447834
Please watch Sarah Alderson’s video creating awareness for Autism
Filed under: Disabilities, Uncategorized, Autism, Disabilities
25/03/2015 • 12:38 am 0
I was shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Adam Bojelian. Such a talented, strong, courageous, and selfless young man.
Adam’s blog is on my links section under Disabilities… Writing by blinking – In The Blink Of An Eye.
This link below is from an article published in The Daily Mail 20th December 2012 about Adam’s life
YouTube – Published on 14 Jan 2015. Words and music by Adam Bojelian aka AdsthePoet
Adam requested his family set up the page below in his memory for #SepsisUK. Please donate
https://www.justgiving.com/AdamBojelian15
Filed under: Disabilities, Uncategorized, Adam Bojelian, Disabilities