: Fuel poverty update

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
Stephen Dineen assesses the problem and plans to combat it. The level of fuel poverty in Northern Ireland has been revised downwards following a Department for Social Development-commissioned study. The University of Ulster study revised the 2009 figure of 44 per cent figure to 13 per cent (75,000 households), using a new method of calculation. Previously, the threshold was set at twice the median amount of household income that families in England spent on heating their homes in 1991 (10 per cent of household income), to maintain an acceptable temperature in their home. The study says...[full story]

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: Overview

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Care services will have to change and adapt to a rise in older people. Preventing poor health can reduce future demands. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Northern Ireland’s population is set to age, with an 18.6 per cent increase in over 65s between 2011 and 2020 and a 42 per cent increase by 2025. The population of children (under 16) will increase by 4.3 per cent and every working age person will have the equivalent of three children or four pension age dependants from now until 2020. These trends, from NISRA’s statistics, will have implications for all health policies, especially residential...[full story]

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: Age NI – Fixing social care

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Age NI believes Northern Ireland’s social care system is broken and a new revised system is long overdue. The Compton Review has provided a much needed platform to debate social care provision in Northern Ireland because the situation for older people in receipt of social care is already at crisis point and a new revised system is long overdue. Age NI believes social care is the linchpin for wider health care provision, if we get it right everything else will fall into place. A system promoting low level services that enables older people to remain in their homes for longer and reduces...[full story]

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: Adoption reform

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Adoption legislation must be updated to provide more children with a family. Meanwhile, alternatives are being considered to reduce the number of children in care. Meadhbh Monahan reports. An Adoption (and Children) Bill is expected to be brought to the Assembly in 2013 aiming to speed up the process of placing children in care with a permanent family. It currently takes approximately three years and six months for a child to be adopted from care in Northern Ireland, while in England children wait an average of two years and seven months. The Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order was passed...[full story]

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: Palliative care funding

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
As people live longer, often with chronic conditions, hospices will have to treat more patients while being forced to raise most of their funds. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Palliative care is provided by five voluntary organisations in Northern Ireland: the Northern Ireland Hospice, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Care, Foyle House Palliative Care and St John’s House Southern Area Hospice. They offer inpatient beds, respite care and bereavement services free of charge to patients referred by their GP or hospital. Children with life-limiting illnesses receive nursing care and...[full story]

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: Age Sector Platform – health priorities

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
The Northern Ireland Pensioners Parliament finds that one in three older people are worried about access to health and social care. Health and social care was one of three key areas discussed at a recent debate at Parliament Buildings, which was attended by around seventy Members of the Pensioners Parliament (MPPs). The debate, which took place in the Senate Chamber, followed on from the highly successful Northern Ireland Pensioners Parliament held earlier this year which saw twenty four motions being passed by older people from across the province. The debate at Stormont, which took...[full story]

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: Safeguarding children

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Protecting and promoting the welfare of children is now to be overseen by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland. agendaNi reports. A Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland is to be established in April 2012 after the Safeguarding Board Bill was taken forward by former Health Minister Michael McGimpsey and received royal assent on 10 February 2011. While voluntary and statutory organisations currently work together to safeguard children (for example on the Regional Child Protection Committee), this is now a statutory requirement. The Safeguarding Board will replace the committee....[full story]

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: Preventing elder abuse – Nigel Dodds

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Parliament will debate Nigel Dodds’ Bill to tackle the abuse of older people in the new year. Stephen Dineen reports. Nigel Dodds’ private members’ Bill aimed at highlighting and preventing abuse of older people and vulnerable adults will have its second reading in the House of Commons on 20 January. The Support and Protection for Elderly People and Adults at Risk of Abuse Bill, which enjoyed cross-party support at first reading, seeks to ensure training on how to recognise and respond to such abuse, promote local strategies for preventing abuse and provide assistance to victims. At...[full story]

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: Royal College of Nursing

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a professional organisation and a trade union. It is not a member of TUC or ICTU and is not affiliated to any political party. At the end of 2010 its membership stood at 409,801, including 13,418 members in Northern Ireland. Members include registered nurses, student nurses and healthcare assistants. The union covers four regions: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the English regions. The six RCN branches across Northern Ireland hold regular meetings and organise events to promote nursing and the RCN at a local level. Its governance structure...[full story]

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: Homecare – reshaping community care

Monday, December 19th, 2011
Homecare Independent Living’s Managing Director Mairead Mackle discusses its work and the challenges facing the Health Service in Northern Ireland with Peter Cheney and calls for a closer working relationship between the statutory and independent sectors in order to best deliver community care. “We have firm views on how Homecare’s services can positively impact on our local communities,” according to Mairead Mackle who founded Homecare Independent Living along with her husband Gerald in 1995. Gerald is Executive Director and heads up the company’s housing division. Mairead...[full story]

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