Community Care Magazine for Elderly and Disabled: GAZETTE No.31SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2003 The Frustrations of Caring Any person involved in providing or receiving care will encounter many frustrations and difficulties. Any interaction with people will produce tensions and personality clashes, which we all understand and try to overcome for the benefit of all concerned. The service, which we seek to provide, is no different. We arrange for people to live together (for a short period of time) who in other circumstances would never have met, let alone shared a home together. This company, which has been in existence for 23 years, is experiencing issues that have never been so irritating and so frequent and go beyond the daily provision of care. For example:
Nominated Neighbours Scheme This is a scheme to help keep people safe from callers at their home, who they do not know. You can have a poster which displays the fact that you are not answering the door because you do not recognise them and giving them another address nearby to call at, i.e. a "nominated neighbour". This has to be someone who is willing to act on your behalf and who is happy to accompany unknown callers to your home. To see if you have such a scheme in your area, contact your local police station. Carers UK Carers UK is the association for carers (the majority of whom are informal carers.) It is however open to non-carers but interested people. It costs £8.00 to join and a wide range of advice and information is available. There are free booklets, support through a network of branches and groups and a quarterly magazine. The magazine has a "For Sale and Wanted" page for equipment. For details call 020 7490 8818 Credit Card Protection If you have spent over £100.00 buying goods from a company and they are faulty or the company goes out of business and you therefore cannot get any help from them, then you can approach your credit card issuer. Under the 1974 Consumer Credit Act the supplier of goods and the credit card company are jointly liable. So if goods are faulty and you cannot get satisfaction from one source you have an alternative. Your Home - Your Asset? If you are seeking some help with paying for care in a residential home then a means test applies in order to see if you can obtain funding. In some situations if a person is going into a residential home then their property may have to be sold in order to pay for the care home fees before funding is then given to them. Basically you have to spend your money first before the care costs are paid by government funding. Many people are worried however when there is another person who is living in their home e.g. spouse and are concerned about the situation then. The value of a property is not taken into account when the following applies:
Diabetic Recipes We have come across a non-medical website written by a diabetic person with a variety of recipes from bread through to vegetarian diabetic recipes. It also offers a free newsletter. We have not tried any of the recipes ourselves but thought it may be of interest to some of our readers. In 1913 a chemist by the name of Mr Williams had a sister whose name was Mabel. Unfortunately the man whom Mabel loved was in love with another woman. Wanting to help his sister "get her man" Mr Williams mixed some Vaseline jelly with coal dust and concocted a lash darkener or the first mascara. The mix was successful and Mabel got her man, marrying him in 1914. In 1915, Mr Williams founded the company Maybelline (Mabel and Vaseline) selling his mixture as a mail order product. The company went on to produce many more cosmetics finally being sold by Mr Williams in 1967. The name still remains but the parent company is now L'Oreal. Sky Disability Service Sky Television has launched a dedicated Disability Service team. It will provide an easy to use one stop shop that can respond to queries from disabled customers seven days a week. It has been designed so that people who have difficulty using the telephone can now make contact by either text phone or with email. Customers printed material such as letters, statements and subscription forms can now be sent in Braille, audio tape and large print. The Sky Magazine can now be obtained in audio format. The contact centre is based in Dunfermline and each staff member has received disability awareness training to help them understand your needs and to be able to respond to them. To see if they can help you contact them by ringing 08705 66 33 33 or text phone 08702 40 19 10 or by email to: disability@bskyb.com Bath Water Temperature Unfortunately, many people are scolded by bath water that is too hot. Accidents particularly happen to young children and elderly people. The temperature recommended by Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is no more than 46C. However, hot water is stored in your hot water tank at above 70C. This is to prevent the development of Legionella. It is possible to test the temperature of bath water by using a thermometer, although this is not recommended, as they can be unreliable. The safe solution is to have a thermostatic valve fitted at the point of delivery of the water so that the temperature is not exceeded. Showers can also be adapted or purchased with this safety device. October 26th is the day... ...we put our clocks back and the darker nights begin. In the Spring, we reverse the process. But why do we do it? In 1916 during World War 1 it was decided that more daylight working hours would be beneficial for the war effort, as it would reduce the hours of artificial lighting needed and improve efficiency. After the war, the system continued and during World War 2, double Summer Time was introduced for a short while, then reversed back. Every so often discussions take place to change it or bring us into line with Central European Time. However, the current information from the Dept. of Trade and Industry (March 2003) is that there are currently no plans to change the UK system. Household Tip When watering indoor plants it is easy to spill water on to the table or the carpet when a leaf diverts the water you are trying to carefully put in the container. A method to avoid such spills and possible damage is to take ice cubes from your freezer/fridge and lay a couple in the top of the plant pot or place in the bowl underneath. This allows the water to be absorbed slowly and avoids water damage to furniture and carpets. The Colder, Dark Nights Are Almost Upon Us:
Following our article in the last Gazette (No 30) regarding compulsory criminal record checks, we have now sent out over 500 Disclosure Forms to all our carers, as well as issuing forms to carers we interview. To date only about 33% of carers have returned their form with the relevant documentation. We would like to stress again that this check is compulsory. All agencies are going through the same process. Once the check has been carried out, it is your property and if you move to another company then you take your property with you. If you are a carer and have not sent your form back yet, do not delay. If we do not have your form back by the end of November, we will not be able to offer you any work. Interviews Interviews have taken place in Norwich, Aberdeen, Manchester, and Llanelli. Joke Sent In By A Reader Little girl to Grandmother - "How old are you Nanny?" Grandmother "I'm not sure, I have forgotten" Little girl "Well look in your knickers Nanny, mine says I am five to six years old" Final thoughts (courtesy of the Daily Mail) Bills travel through the post at twice the speed of cheques!! If you like your passport photo you could probably do with the trip!!
home | about us | contact us | care FAQ | terms & conditions | privacy policy | care links service-user-access-form.pdf | litigation services | second hand store Able Community Care Opening Hours: 9:00am - 4:00pm GMT, Monday to Friday Tel: +44 (0)1603 764567 | Fax: +44 (0)1603 761655 | Email: ablemg@aol.com © Able Community Care | VAT number 552696317 | Proprietor: Angela Gifford |