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UK dementia numbers equal to combined population of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee
A major new Alzheimer’s Research Trust commissioned University of Oxford report, Dementia 2010, reveals that the impact of dementia on the UK’s society and economy has been significantly underestimated. The crisis is worse than feared and we now know that dementia affects 820,000 people, equal to the combined population of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, costing the UK economy £23 billion per year. In Scotland alone, dementia affects 70,000 people. Read more...
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Quality Standard Plus Award
John Vance, Peter Molloy and Brian Doig attended a reception at SLC Headquarters in
Almada Street, to accept the above award on behalf of the GroupEight voluntary organisations received the Quality Standard Award, and two (ourselves and the WRVS Hairmyres Hospital Shop) both received the Quality Standard Plus award. The award was made following a very thorough audit of our systems and procedures, and an interview with our manager and a volunteer.
As well as being excellent publicity for the Group, it is evidence of the high standards of policies and procedures within the Group, as well as the way in which we implement them.
Our thanks to all at SoLVE for the nomination and award. Check out the Volunteer Centre website at www.solve.org.uk.
Pine Patter
This is our brand new bi-monthly news letter from the carers group.Get the latest and past issues here.
If you would like to subscribe to our news letter please send us an email on the Contact Us page.
Pop quiz
Try the new first issue of our pop quiz and the second issue is also available.
Pop quiz I and Pop quiz II
Recipe Book
We now have a Recipe book now and is avaliable for download Complete Recipe BookPraised in the Parliament
Linda Fabiani (SNP) made some excellent comments about the dementia carers group in the Scottish Parliament.This is an extract from a Scottish Parliament discussion. Minutes of the full discussion can be accessed from: here
Further articles are available from Ms Fabiani’s own website: www.lindafabiani.co.uk
scottish Parliament Official report
The projected figures for South Lanarkshire, where I live and
which my constituency covers, bear thinking about. It is
reckoned that, during a 10-year period, the number of
sufferers in South Lanarkshire will increase by 25 per cent.
However, the increase in East Kilbride is estimated at 51 per
cent, which raises issues. Dr Simpson spoke a lot of sense
about how we ask service providers to deal with the issues.Talking of service providers, there is a group in my constituency that I have come to know well-the East Kilbride dementia group. The group supports dementia sufferers who are still living in the community and works to maintain their independence. I am hugely impressed by the work that it does, particularly as it was founded in 1991 and has been working all this time. It has accepted a massive challenge and it has succeeded because it pushed out the boundaries and did so with a great passion and belief. It believes in a homely environment with small groups of service users and that the ideal setting has a service user to staff ratio of no more than 3:1.
The group helps people to maintain their independence, supports and helps people to live at home and provides opportunities for social activity. I thought it was great when the group told me that, although the users might not remember that they had a day out or where they went, as the old clichés might suggest, they will have the sense of wellbeing that is so important because it maintains the sense of life and of being worth while. We should never forget that, because it is just as important as many of the other aspects.
The last thing I want to mention is a wonderful example of community spirit. A small company in East Kilbride called Ecebs recently did a team-building exercise with its staff and it decided to help a local charity. It went to the East Kilbride dementia group and 30 Ecebs staff-the entire staff complement-turned up for an away day at the group's premises. From the managing director Alan Moody right down, the entire team spent the whole day completely redecorating the group’s premises and doing all the gardening and handyman and handywoman jobs that needed to be done.
Is that not a wonderful example of community spirit? There were benefits for both sides. Ecebs benefited from its teamwork and the dementia group benefited from the work that was carried out for them. That is to be commended. I hope that other small and large companies that tune into some of what we talk about in Parliament will take up that idea, rather than pay consultants a fortune to run team-building exercises, which can be done in the local community.
Read our past news from the group for 2008 and 2009.
