Nurses looking for new career opportunities in 2019 are invited to attend a recruitment open day at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) on 2 February 2019 from 10am to 2pm.

The hospital has opportunities for nurses and midwives to work in Medicine, Paediatrics and Theatres. NGH is proud to be the first hospital in the UK to have achieved Pathway to Excellence® accreditation, an internationally-recognised programme which validates workplaces where nurses are supported to develop and flourish.

Sheran Oke, Director of Nursing Midwifery and Patient Services says, “We have also invested in new facilities, including our emergency centre and a new chemotherapy suite, offering a great work environment for our healthcare teams.  At the open day nurses will get to meet some of our nursing team, take a tour of the facilities and find out about more the roles available. We will be hosting job interviews and awarding conditional job offers on the day, so nurses should bring their CVs.”

The organisers of the Future of Care Conference are pleased to announce that BBC broadcaster and dementia charity founder, Sally Magnusson has been confirmed to chair the second annual event taking place on 19thMarch 2019 at The King’s Fund in central London.

Sally has presented a range of programmes for the BBC over the years, from Breakfast Newsand Reporting Scotland to a range of documentaries and investigations, including Panorama. She is also the author of ten books to date, including the best-selling memoir, Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything, and founded the music and dementia charity, Playlist for Life in 2013.

A social care provider is celebrating after two of its services – a rehabilitation team and a care home - both received 100% ‘Good’ reports from UK’s health watchdog.

The Optalis support and rehabilitation team, who provide short-term care and support to people in their own homes across the Windsor and Maidenhead area, was rated as ‘Good’ in all five categories of the CQC report, published on the 8 January.

Delivering support to around 30 to 40 adults per month, the service provides personal care and rehabilitation on a short-term basis to customers recovering following a hospital stay, ensuring they are able to get back to leading an independent life as soon as possible.

Dulux Trade has furthered its work with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to deliver evidence-based principles to help improve environments for people living with Dementia and their carers.

Chris and Sally’s House, a project designed to develop solutions for an ageing population, has been created using insight from academics, design experts and people with first-hand experience of living with, or caring for someone with Dementia. It is estimated that some 850,000 people in the UK live with Dementia and 70-80% of those continue to stay in their unadapted homes rather than in any specialised form of housing or dedicated care environment.

Carers from across the UK were invited to take part in a photo competition run by Person Centred Software and The Care Workers Charity.

Alice Taylor, the cook at Primrose Lodge Southbourne care home in Bournemouth, won a Haven holiday in the #GladtoCare competition. The winning entry features a photo of Alice cooking and her message: “I’m #GladtoCare making home cooked food daily for my residents and have been for seventeen years.”

The esteemed panel of judges including David Brindle, the Guardian’s public services editor, Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England, Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum and Alex Ramamurthy, former-CEO of the Care Workers Charity, selected the winning entry.

A new book, exploring the increasingly important area of reablement services in community care, has been written by health and social care professionals at the University of Chester.

Led by Valerie Ebrahimi, Programme Leader for the MEd in Professional Education, with Dr Hazel Chapman, Senior Lecturer, the book entitled Reablement Services in Health and Social Care, is a guide for both students and support workers.

Valerie’s role as a senior lecturer also extends to teaching on a BA in Health and Social Care and her expertise lies in the field of ageing. Hazel’s background is in adult and learning disabilities nursing as well as psychology. Her doctoral thesis was on the experience of people with learning disabilities in healthcare. Both lecturers are based in the University’s Faculty of Health and Social Care.

Gardening can have a profound impact on someone’s quality of life, especially those living with dementia. Gardens provide a familiar environment of relaxation, sensory stimulation and can also help to create a sense of community.  

With a wide range of benefits for both physical and mental wellbeing, gardening provides an excellent activity for someone living with dementia. 

Reminiscence

Gardens are often perceived as places of happiness and joy, whether from childhood memories of playing, seeing and smelling your favourite flowers, or taking part in gardening as a relaxing hobby in later life, they can often spark brilliant memories.

The government recently announced that it would be launching the first ever loneliness strategy, aiming to empower all GPs in England to be able to refer patients suffering from loneliness to community activities and voluntary services by 2023, but how can impacts be made in the meantime? Loneliness can affect any individual of any age, but with 3.6million of the elderly living by themselves and 1.9million saying they often feel alone or invisible, it’s particularly an issue for those in later life. People can become socially isolated for many reasons but those with mobility issues or other health conditions are often unable to engage with many activities outside of their home, and with families now regularly separated by great distances, any social time with others is highly valued.

Just completed, Castle View Windsor, had to be ‘good enough for Mum’ – that was the vision of  Robin Hughes, Founder and CEO, Castle Retirement Living, set out to achieve – and an urban retirement development with a difference.

With a third of apartments already reserved, Castle View Windsor offers some of the most spectacular castle views in town from its own rooftop sky lounge, bar and terrace. One of the largest and most innovative urban retirement villages in the UK, the £50 million development provides a total of 64 apartments including five spectacular rooftop apartments, along with a neighbouring 72 bed care home, which is being operated by Care UK.

With Robin’s Mum amongst its first residents, prices at Castle View Windsor start from £390,000 for a one bed to £790,000 for a three bed or two bed plus apartment with dining or study on the first-third floors, while prices will be released for the rooftop apartments shortly.

Robotic therapy pets, which respond to touch and sound and provide stimulation and companionship, are also growing in popularity in care homes, with one in 10 care home staff (11%), saying their care homes have them. Robotic therapy pets mimic real animals and include life-like dogs which bark and furry cats which miaow and purr.

Doll therapy and robotic pet therapy are becoming more recognised as a way of calming and comforting people with dementia, although doll therapy in particular can be controversial as it can be challenging for relatives to see their family member cradling a doll and there have been suggestions it infantilises people with dementia.

Experts in the field have a number of tips for those considering the therapy. These include introducing the doll gradually, using the doll at appropriate times and ensuring people do not neglect their own needs in favour of the dolls.

Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care and Busy Bees have come together to develop an innovative and practical solution to help people fund their long term care. This initiative was developed from the successful salary sacrifice scheme for childcare which Busy Bees developed.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England says: 
"Social care shouldn’t be seen in a vacuum. It is staggering how much common ground there is whether people are parents, carers, employees or employers. The salary sacrifice scheme invented by Busy Bees is an excellent means to make care more affordable alongside other ideas including those involving intergenerational aspects. We need to think global but act local and judge on outcomes and whether it delivers".

Parklands Group, one of the largest independent care home providers in the north of Scotland, has received a £5m investment from BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growing businesses, to further accelerate its growth.

Set up in 1993 in Buckie by Ron Taylor, Parklands provides high-quality residential care for older people at eight care homes across Moray and the Highlands, the most recent being its newly opened state-of-the-art Lynemore home in Grantown on Spey. Parklands was one of the first nursing care providers in Scotland to achieve Investors in People status and the group has won a series of awards for the quality of its care and its commitment to staff development and training. 

Bluebird Care Edinburgh is celebrating after achieving ratings of Grade 6 across the board from the Care Inspectorate, the independent regulator of care services in Scotland.

The grades were received after a comprehensive inspection in December 2018 which deemed the care provider’s quality of care and support and quality of staffing both ‘Excellent,’ in its Quality Framework, the highest rating possible.

The news follows a great 2018 for Bluebird Care in Scotland. Earlier on in the year, Bluebird Care Glasgow South was inspected and maintained its ‘Excellent’ Grade 6s for the fifth year in a row.

Bluebird Care Edinburgh provides home care across Edinburgh, including a range of services that aim to ensure people have the freedom to live as safely and comfortably as possible in their own homes for as long as they are able to. It currently provides care to 129 individuals.

Thomas Timson was one of the first residents to arrive at the luxury Abbotswood Court care home when the purpose-built facility opened in Romsey in 2015. He made the decision to move following the passing of his beloved wife after 65 years of marriage. Having shared many cherished years together, her absence had a huge impact on Tom’s life and his love for singing became a neglected pastime. Even though his son lives nearby, living alone without someone to share his music with, was too big an adjustment.

The pair married in 1953 and were both proud to share their anniversary year with the Queen’s Coronation. A devoted husband, Tom nursed and tended to his wife for over two years before her passing. During this time Tom lost many opportunities to engage in his favourite passion, singing. A Hampshire man through and through, Tom was born in Compton, a small town just south of Winchester. He worked on the local railways as a Signalman for over 40 years.

Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has signed up to the EDUCATE Music and Laughter project.  EDUCATE is a Stockport based group of people living with dementia, who raise awareness and help deliver training programmes.  EDUCATE inspires others to live well with dementia. The Music and Laughter project is also being promoted by Fabulous Forgetful Friends, an involvement group for people living with dementia in Manchester.

Borough Care has over 20 years of experience supporting people with dementia. The company offers dementia support through a range of services, including residential care, active recovery and day care provision.  Borough Care has partnered with EDUCATE to put on a range of musical performances and events for residents.