We believe that when we get Dementia Care right – We get All Care right – so this model will support excellence across all needs and sectors – it’s about the person first and last.

A FURRY friend has been helping care home residents with dementia by providing company and cuddles. Oscar the PAT dog and his owner Paula Gascoigne have paid a visit to Waverley Lodge Care Home, in Lemington, Newcastle. Paula, who is from Dumpling Hall, Newcastle, is a volunteer with North East based friendship dog charity, Wag and Company.

They enable visiting dog teams to build meaningful new friendships with older dog lovers.

Friendship dog Oscar has been helping care home residents with dementia by providing company and cuddles at Waverley Lodge care home.

Michelle Park, activities coordinator at Waverley Lodge Care Home, on Bewick Crescent, said: “Our residents loved seeing Oscar and the smiles on their faces just said it all. 

ROALD Dahl has been bridging the generation gap in Skelmersdale as primary school pupils read their favourite stories to elderly care home residents.

Year four and five pupils from Delph Side Primary School were visiting Aaron Crest Care Home for Roald Dahl Day – celebrating the author’s birthday.

Providing the best possible healthcare is always at the top of every healthcare providers list, and this includes ensuring that any potential health risks are effectively minimised and controlled. 

Throughout the healthcare industry there are significant risks from infectious bacterial cross-contamination, especially in shared living spaces such as care homes and hospitals. The risks are magnified in facilities for older and frail people where cleaning regimes are not strictly controlled. This can lead to the spread of potentially deadly pathogenic bacteria, such as Campylobacter, MRSA, E.coli, Legionella, Listeria and Salmonella amongst others.

The latest phase of a multi-million pound investment by independent care provider Parklands Group has been given the green light. Plans for a £6.5 million care hub for older people in Inverness, one of three new Highland care homes planned or already under construction, have been approved by the Highland Council.

The largest single investment by Parklands, the Inverness facility will be built in two phases, the first consisting of a two-storey care home featuring 48 bedrooms, a café, hairdresser and eight day rooms. The second phase will offer 16 assisted living suites, with three day rooms, and will be linked to the care wing on both ground and first floor levels. The site will include landscaped gardens, 42 parking spaces and sheltered cycle racks.

September is World Alzheimer’s Month, with World Alzheimer’s Day falling on 21 September each year.  September 2018 marks the 7th World Alzheimer’s Month, which is an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that surrounds dementia. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults.  It is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has over 20 years of experience supporting people with dementia.  Nine of Borough Care’s eleven homes are specialist dementia care homes.

A Shrewsbury-based choir whose performances focus on signing rather than singing is appealing for an invitation to perform in front of a new audience in the region.   Kim Walshaw, a qualified Makaton trainer who works as locality manager for care-provider Regard and has launched a signing choir for colleagues and the people they support, said: “You only have to watch our choir to see how much the members love what they are doing, and their performances spread such joy.  

“We’d love people to contact us with suggestions for inclusive local events where they would like us to perform.” 

Omega Elifar, a UK leader in long-term care accommodation, has opened The Firefly Club – an innovative residential care development in Bordon, Hampshire. The property comprises 10 independent living suites alongside eight full-care suites and a large activity suite, and is designed to deliver a unique assisted living experience guided solely by each resident’s needs – with an industry-leading provision of high staffing ratios.

Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, is supporting the Macmillan Cancer Support World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on Friday 28 September.

Each of Borough Care’s eleven homes will be hosting a coffee morning for residents, their families, healthcare professionals and staff.  Staff at Borough Care’s head office will also be getting in on the act by bringing in cakes for their own fundraising coffee money.  All the money raised will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Government’s Clean Growth strategy may seem like bad news for off-grid rural care homes as they face phasing out heating oil in favour of lower carbon fuels.

The sector is already being squeezed by rising costs and local authority spending cuts – but a care home in the Cotswolds has shown the way to go greener and save money at the same time, working with LPG supplier AvantiGas.

YOUNG people have been welcomed by a Tyneside care home – to help them build social skills and become top citizens.

Residents at Waverley Lodge Care Home, in Lemington, made unlikely friends with the teenage volunteers, aged 15 to 17, as part of Newcastle United Foundation’s National Citizenship Service (NCS.)

Young people on the scheme took on gardening, kept residents company and provided entertainment including games and activities throughout the summer.

Michelle Park, activities coordinator at Waverley Lodge Care Home, in Bewick Crescent, said: “The students were so enthusiastic and brought a touch of magic to the lives of the residents. 

There is good evidence that dehydration causes a significant increase in the incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) and other severe infections associated with it. Jennie Wilson, member of the Infection Prevention Society, provides these key facts to help you prevent your patients becoming dehydrated:

1. Keep drinking

Adults need to take in a minimum of 1.5 litres of fluid every day. This is equivalent to at least 8 large cups or mugs of fluid.  Make sure that drinks are offered to patients enough times during the day to enable them to drink this amount of fluids.

2. Older people are more vulnerable to dehydration

Spearhead Healthcare, one of the UK’s leading suppliers to the care home sector, will open the doors to a new care home showroom in Stafford in response to growing demand for high quality furniture, furnishings and equipment designed specifically for the care environment.

As an increasingly resource-strapped NHS faces further pressures to manage demands resulting from an ever-aging UK population, the importance of enabling safe transition back home from hospital for the elderly has never been greater. 

For both patients – particularly those who live alone, and their carers – often relatives with work and family responsibilities, the challenge of ensuring safe transition home from hospital for patients is placing an unprecedented burden upon occupational therapists whose work load is bordering on unsustainable. In a recent survey conducted by PPP Taking Care, 66% of occupational therapists reported that they were unable to commit enough time to the core part of their job; that of helping people transition following a hospital stay.

COLOUR canons fired by Hill Care Group staff kicked off the third and final Teesside Hospice Colour Run for 2018.

The care home group, which operates several homes across Teesside, was one of the sponsors of this year’s event and given the important role of starting the run.

Almost 1,200 participants took part, taking laps of Stewart Park, in Middlesbrough, while being pelted with environmentally friendly coloured powder paint.

The staff from Hill Care, which has homes in Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, also manned one of the colour stations.