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Community Care Magazine No27 for Elderly and DisabledDomiciliary Care National Minimum Standards At last the above National Care Standards have been published and will come into effect from April 2003. As you are aware over the past few years we have introduced policies and procedures, which have sought to improve the level of care we provide. Indeed, we constantly strive to make our service provision the best possible. For this reason, we do not anticipate that we will have to make any major changes in our service provision to ensure compliance with the Standards. Actually some of our current procedures are of a higher standard than then the actual requirement! Your Pension - How Much will It Be? If you are nearing retirement age and you are wondering about how much pension you will be able to obtain from the State then it is quite easy to find out. Obtain from your local DSS Office (number in telephone directory) a Pension Forecast form (called BR19). Complete your details and send it off. You will then receive information on the amount you have accumulated and what you could receive at your normal pension date. Bear in mind that any information you receive is relevant to the date you receive it and will not take into account any future Government changes. At such a time, if changes occur, then you would just go through the process again. Thinking About Holidays? If you are an Arthritis sufferer you may be interested to learn of the Arthritis Care Hotels. They have four hotels, all at the seaside and have staff available to help anyone who needs some assistance.
Click here to visit the Arthritis Care Hotels website. If you need to stop on route to your holiday destination all Travel Inns have one or more bedrooms designed for use by disabled people. For a directory tel: 01582 414341. If you wish to look for wheelchair friendly hotels in a specific area then you may wish to take a look at the following Internet site: www.wheelchairfriendly.co.uk This site enables you to find details of wheelchair friendly places in any part of the U.K. You can also use the site to find hotels that cater for vegetarians and are pet or children friendly. If you require dialysis facilities whilst on holiday both Jersey and Guernsey provide facilities for up to twelve people between April and the end of September. You have to find your own accommodation on the island and arrange transport to the centre. Tel The British Kidney Patient Association for details 01420 472021 Household Tips Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is a product that was well known to the housewives in the 1950's. Still easily purchased in supermarkets it is a little out of fashion these days as other more fashionable products are being made, but these cost more. Baking powder is cheaper and can still do the job just as well. Here are a few ideas that we have taken off a web site "Sixty uses for Baking Soda"
For more,
click here for sixty uses of baking soda.
Your Council has a duty to provide meals to elderly and disabled people who need them, either at home or elsewhere. The Council will have eligibility criteria for the provision of meals which are likely to be based on your ability to prepare a hot meal. They may provide frozen meals which can be heated in a microwave oven but if you are unable to use one then hot meals should still be delivered to you. For further information on this and other rights to social services that you may have e.g. adaptations in the home, assistance with holidays, aids and equipment, etc contact Age Concern and ask for Fact Sheet 32. Tel 0800 00 99 66. History of a Familiar Name - "Shell" In 1892 Marcus Samuel and his brother Sam were running a business, previously started by their Father, selling sea shells. The business was doing quite well employing about 40 girls making souvenir trinket boxes decorated with the shells. Their Father died and left them the equivalent of £100,000 and they decided to diversify. Apart from shells the company had knowledge of agents who exported rice, grains, sugar, etc. They had also added case oil to their list of trading commodities. Case oil (or Kerosene) was transported two cans to a wooden case. The demand for Kerosene was growing as it was increasingly being used for lighting, instead of candles, lard or other oil. The brothers decided that it would be better to take a risk in this market than continue to make a safe and secure living selling shells. There were many problems to overcome. A secure, cheap source of oil had to be found and a way to transport it in bulk. A different design of ship had to be built which could transport the oil and would be allowed to pass through the Suez Canal. Already there was a company, Standard Oil, which had the monopoly on this trade and therefore any plans had to be kept secret. They also had to raise additional finance for this new business venture. They succeeded - By 1892 the first tanker the Murex was completed and on 24th August 1892 the tanker brought her cargo of Russian Kerosene from the Black Sea, through the Suez Canal, the first bulk oil tanker to do so. In 1897 the Samuel brothers changed their company name to The Shell Transport and Trading Co. In 1907 the company was amalgamated with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Co to become the Royal Dutch Shell Group, as it is today. Additional Electricity Costs If you usually wait until you receive the "red bill" you may be putting yourself on course for higher electricity charges. Some energy providers have brought in a late payment charge. Customers who do not pay their bills within 21 days of the date shown on top of their bill for two quarters running will have to pay 9.5% more on the next one. If after that you return to paying within 21 days (allowing it states, for three working days for the payment to reach them) your next bill will return to the lower rate. Slippers by post Sheepskin slippers, pull on slippers with slip-resistant hard soles, high sided loafer slippers, sheepskin lined boot slipper with Velcro fastening, slipper boots adapted for people with limited hand or ankle mobility and slippers lined in pure wool are all available from Kiwi Slippers. They have a brochure which can be obtained by telephoning 01986 783333 or click here to visit their web page. where there are pictures on display. They also offer 100% pure wool underwear. Do You Remember Rag Rugs? Rag rugs have been around for hundreds of years and many of us can remember them and might still even have one in our home. They were made from any old piece of cloth or woollen material that was available. One way to make the rugs was to get an old piece of sacking or a piece of canvas cut into strips and then with a crochet hook, "hook" through the sacking. This was done carefully with many more strips of cloth until the front of the rug was "full" and the back was then painted with glue to keep the strips in place. The edges of the rug were turned under and the base lined with another odd piece of material. Other rugs could be made by braiding material, e.g. old stockings and then the plaid wound round into an oval or round shape and sewn through to hold in shape. The results were colourful and hardwearing rugs, some of which probably became heirlooms. There is a resurgence in this kind of rug making and many craft sites on the Internet will provide information about making them. Ailments and Old Wives Tales - Truth or Fiction? Toothache - the old English folk cure was to rub oil of clove on to the affected area. It worked and will do so today because Eugenol is a natural chemical found in cloves and is both a mild antiseptic and a painkiller. So using oil of cloves means you are treating any infection you may have in your gums and reducing the pain. The British Dental Association says that the anaesthetic properties of cloves are a key ingredient in many sedative dental preparations. Herbal toothpastes often have extracts of clove oil in them. White spots on your fingernails - this is not a sign of calcium deficiency as many of us were told when we were children. White spots on nails are harmless and are mostly caused by a bump or minor accident to the nail. Crossing your legs will give you varicose veins - It is actually more likely to cause blood clots because of pressure on the calves. This is especially true if you are on a long plane journey. 90% of varicose vein problems are hereditary, so if your parents had them, you are likely to have them to. Announcements Thanks - Many thanks to the following carers who helped out in exceptional circumstances over the Christmas period: Janet Maxwell, Jean Nash, Margaret Goodwin and Joanne Smart. Deaths - Both Mary Christopher and Mr Holding have died since our last Gazette. Our thanks to every one of their carers. Interviews - have been held in Sheffield and Norwich. Telephone Numbers We have a new range of Direct Dial numbers... Care Managers Accounts / Payroll Angela Gifford: 01603 281921 These numbers are available during normal office hours or you can still ring our main number (01603 764567) and ask to speak to the relevant member of staff. In the case of an Emergency outside office hours, the number is 07850 784062. Final Thought... Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote!
is the online version of Able Community Care's Gazette. Want a printed copy of our current Gazette? Click Here To Request a Printed Gazette... with experienced live-in Carers gives peace of mind and has been our nationwide priority since 1980. Alternatively, we can post you our current brochure. Click Here to Request a Printed Brochure... Click Here to Join us as a Carer... We're always happy to answer your questions Click Here to Ask a Question... Telephone: 01603 764567 (office hours: 9am-4pm GMT) Fax: 01603 761655 Able Community Care The Old Parish Rooms Whitlingham Lane Trowse, Norwich NR14 8TZ United Kingdom Back to Community Care Magazine Index...
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