There are more than 400,000 older people living in care homes in the United Kingdom (UK) and around 80% of those people are likely to have dementia (SCIE, 2020). Care homes can be funded by the local authority, the National Health Service (NHS) or privately: it is estimated that around 40% of residents in care [read the full story…]
While turning on the TV or radio to hear about other countries’ COVID-19 experiences is likely to be more of a home rather than work activity, there is also some value in thinking about this professionally. Fortunately, some people have done lots of the heavy lifting for us, by working collaboratively to share their thinking. [read the full story…]
Self-funders (or elf-funders) are people who have to pay for their social care using their own finances, as opposed to receiving partial or full funding from their local council’s adult social care department. In England a threshold exists of £23,250, those who have above this amount in savings and sometimes other assets are deemed to [read the full story…]
An informal carer refers to someone who, “provides unpaid help and support to a partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour who could not manage without this help” (Beesley, 2006). Comparatively, people who choose to be carers have a higher quality of life than those who provide care as it is expected of them. Though health [read the full story…]
COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges across all levels of society, but older people have undoubtedly been at the highest risk from this disease, particularly those living in long-term care facilities. As in many countries, the Chilean government has produced guidelines and regulations to encourage the prevention and control of COVID-19 outbreaks in residential and nursing [read the full story…]
It is clear that adult social care in the United Kingdom (UK), as in many other countries, faces serious challenges, most simply summarised as rising demand from demographic changes and greater pressure on available resources. The interventions to address this will need to be at all levels (national policy and legislation, managing local systems and in individual [read the full story…]
There is increasing interest in co-production in public services and in social care. This blog reports on a PhD study of timebanks which are now seen as an example of co-production but have a long history in being promising indications of mutual aid and reciprocal support between members of local communities. Social care interest groups [read the full story…]
This study explores the use of humour as a practice tool in social care, drawing on the humour-health hypothesis as the premise of the investigation and identifying both positive and negative impacts that definitely warrant some more thought and exploration. The Elves are not new to the idea that humour can be an important tool [read the full story…]
Jill Manthorpe discusses a qualitative study which examines the experiences of frontline workers in care homes and home care
[read the full story...]
Caroline Green discusses a qualitative study which considers the effects of COVID-19 on social support services for people with dementia.
[read the full story...]
