Community Care Magazine for Elderly and Disabled: GAZETTE No.53MAY-JUNE 2007 Benefits for Older People Age Concern is aware that benefits totalling £4.2 billion are unclaimed by older people each year, and is launching a campaign to encourage them to claim money that they have a right to. They are urging family and friends of older people to tell them to get in touch with their local Age Concern office to see if they are missing out. Alternatively, their helpline will give advice and the number to call is 0800 00 99 66. Many people are put off claiming because they feel that the process will be too much of a hassle for them. Age Concern has the following tips for claiming benefits:
Allana is a clothing company based in Market Harborough. They sell fashion clothing and nightwear for people who are wheelchair dependent. Their clothing is designed to be fashionable and practical. Incorporated into their designs are magnetic fasteners, trousers which fit higher up the back and have extra wide legs, tops can have split sleeves to aid dressing, back openings and shoulder openings are also present on their garments. All are in easy care fabrics. To get further information telephone 01536 764267 or visit their website at: http://www.allanasmyth.co.uk www.DirectEnquiries.com Direct Enquiries, The Nationwide Access Register, was developed in partnership with RADAR and the Employers' Forum on Disability to provide people with information about disabled access in buildings and premises all across the UK. Direct Enquiries works with all the organisations registered. These companies provide Direct Enquiries with comprehensive information about their disabled access and facilities. They receive over 2.4 million hits a month. So if you are seeking details about disabled facilities in Tesco or Mothercare stores, if you want to play bingo in a Gala Bingo Hall or visit a police station, you can check their disabled credentials on the above site. Are You A Volunteer Driver? Many communities and individuals depend on voluntary car drivers to help out with tasks such as hospital visiting, visits to health centres, shopping trips, prescription collection, lifts for appointments, meals on wheels, etc. many of which are arranged through voluntary organisations. Voluntary organisations have a duty of care under Health and Safety law to ensure the safety of their volunteers as well as their staff. Volunteers also have a duty to give full and relevant facts about their ability to drive, their car, etc. to the organisation they drive for. ROSPA - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has published a 20 page booklet entitled the Volunteer Driver's Handbook. This covers legal matters, journey planning, fitness to drive, driver training, emergency procedures and much more. You can get a copy either from their website at http://www.rospa.com or by telephoning 0121 248 2000. Love Caravans? It is very easy to locate caravan sites throughout the UK, but it is now easier to find caravan sites that have disabled facilities. http://www.caravanable.co.uk is a site which lists, county by county, caravan sites which have the minimum requirements for a disabled person of a shower, basin and toilet with ramped access. If you know of sites with good disabled facilities that are not listed on this site, please email the website and let them know so they can make the information available for other people. A Recipe for Summer - Lemon Tart Preparation Time: 5 mins. Cooking Time: 20-25 mins. Serves: 6-8. Ingredients: 1x 20cm/8in ready baked sweet pastry case. Method:
Your Safeguards When Shopping Online Whenever you shop on UK-based retail sites, there are eight safeguards which protect you:
Second Hand Store Able Community Care is offering a new service to people who have disability items they wish to sell and for people who would like to buy such items second hand. The Second Hand Store is opening on our website over the next few weeks. Car Hire for Disabled People Adapted Car Hire is a company that hire vehicles out which are adapted for disabled people. As part of their service they will deliver and collect from your door. The vehicles can be hired on a weekly, monthly or daily basis. All their vehicles are obtained from Motability accredited suppliers. For further details visit their website at http://www.adaptedcarhire.co.uk or call them on 0845 6862 007. A Useful Book A newly published book entitled "Promoting Independence and Activity" has been written by one of the readers of our Thursday Newsflash, Julie Swann an independent Occupational Therapist. The book has 310 pages and for anyone studying for an NVQ in care, Julie says it is appropriate reading. The book can be obtained from www.quaybooks.com but if you would like a flavour of the chapters go to http://www.julieswann.com/book.htm Pet Care Advice The Blue Cross Pet Charity has a national information service All About Pets. They provide leaflets, which are free, in the following four categories:
By visiting their website at http://www.allaboutpets.org.uk you can download the leaflets of your choice. You can also find out information about The Blue Cross, how you can help, receive an E-newsletter and if you wish, listen to celebrities talking about their pets. Mobile Phones The penalties for using a hand held phone whilst driving are as follows: £60.00 fine and three penalty points. If the driver chooses to take their case to court the maximum fine is £1000.00 or £2500.00 for drivers of vans, lorries, buses and coaches. Diabetic Sweets Many outlets have varieties of sweets suitable for diabetics but sometimes they may be more difficult to buy if you live in a small town or village. Many of the "old fashioned" varieties have vanished, but there are still some companies selling them and you can even have them delivered to your door by a company called Bag of Sweets. They can be contacted at http://www.bagofsweets.co.uk or write to Atlantis Sales, 3 Gloucester Street, Bath BA1 2SE, England. The following list is a selection of some of the sugar free sweets stocked by them that are suitable for diabetics. Large pear drops, liquorice toffees, mint aniseed, mintoes, pineapple fizz, sugar free polos, rhubarb and custard, cough candy, devon toffee, chocolate limes, barley sugar (to name but a few). The Card That Helps A helpcard was launched in April this year specifically for people who are in the early stages of Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. The card has the words "I have dementia" with contact details of family, friends or carers. With this card, people can go out and about within their locality and if there are problems, production of this card will enable muddles to be sorted out and make situation easier for the person who has the illness. The cards are available from the 260 branches of The Alzheimer's Society across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Marks and Spencer Between April 2006 and March 2007 Marks and Spencer offered 150 work experience placements to disabled people. Placements took place at stores across the UK and Ireland. Special Thanks It is our pleasure to publicly pass on thanks to both Mavis Kavhu and Pauline Table from an appreciative client. Finally... Q) Why do cats hate flying saucers? A) Because they can't reach the milk! Q) What is the difference between a cat and a comma? A) One has the paws before the claws and the other has the clause before the pause! As our website now contains over 150 pages of content, most with a fairly diverse range of subjects, we have added a Google search box towards the bottom of each page on our site. Just type your keyword in the Google search box, select the radio button next to "www.uk-care.com", then click the search button. At present, your search should look through 66 archived Able Newsflashes, 48 Question & Answer pages and 34 Gazettes (Community Care Magazines). For copies of our current brochure please telephone 01603 764567 or email to: ablemg@aol.com
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