Health
How can you help your parent stay well for as long as possible and find their way through a complex health system?
Can social prescribing help with mild dementia and cognitive impairment?
Social prescribing has been much in the news over the last year, but many of us have a fuzzy idea of what it is and whether it can be useful. The idea is that a health professional, such as a GP or other primary health workers, can prescribe activities such as exercise or joining an […]
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What will it take for care homes to open their doors again?
When will we be allowed to get back into care homes to visit our loved ones? While some homes are clearly working hard to find solutions to what is an incredibly difficult question, others are said to have pulled up the drawbridge and are implementing draconian measures to keep visitors out, and to isolate residents […]
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Hospital discharge changes during Covid-19
In August 2020 the UK government promised a £588 million fund to cover adult social care or the immediate costs of care for people in their own home after discharge from hospital. Here’s a run-down on the latest guidance for those leaving hospital, their family and their carers. (If you click on the links for […]
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Visiting family members in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic
Of all the challenges facing people during the coronavirus pandemic, being able to visit family who live in care homes has been one of the most confusing and heart-breaking. While we do hear reports of homes where visiting, at least in gardens, has been going ahead without problem, there are also many stories of families […]
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Can we avoid Alzheimer’s?
Not so many years ago Alzheimer’s disease was a mystery to many. It wasn’t easily identified, and for many of us, its implications weren’t widely understood. When it struck members of our family, we didn’t know how to cope. And we certainly didn’t know how it had happened. Much has changed in recent years. There […]
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Dental Implants vs. Dentures: Which is Best for You?
Collaborative Post As we get older, it might become necessary for us to replace some or all of our teeth. Many people experience tooth loss as they age for some reason or another. But for most of us, missing teeth can be embarrassing and if you have lost a tooth, you may have found yourself […]
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Pandemic rules for older people living independently
As we come out of lockdown the ‘guidance’ around who we can see when, and where we can go, is changing rapidly. For anyone who’s been at home and is now just venturing out into the world, it can appear very confusing. With this in mind, it seems worth offering a snapshot of the guidelines […]
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Who needs to wear a face mask or covering and who’s exempt
Many of us are now being asked to wear face coverings on public transport, in hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries, and now in retail outlets. It’s a physically and socially odd feeling, but that we, and our family members, must get used to if we want to visit a growing number of facilities. The […]
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How the pandemic is changing the way we manage diabetes
Diabetes is one of the conditions believed to raise the risk level of serious illness for anyone who contracts Covid-19. One in four people who died in hospital in England between March and May 2020 following a diagnosis of the coronavirus also had diabetes. While this sounds alarming, the risk of dying is still very […]
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Keeping track of your relative’s mental health after lockdown
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way that the world has been functioning over the past few months. As we try to head out of lockdown and get our lives back to some semblance of ‘normal’, it is just as important that we look out for our older family and friends as much as when […]
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