Latest News from Everycare
Up to a quarter of the home care workers will be made to look for other jobs if Covid-19 vaccination becomes mandatory, a new survey reveals.
A six-week consultation was launched on 9 September to decide whether Covid and flu vaccinations should be made compulsory for home care workers and the NHS workforce, but according to the latest survey published by the Homecare Association, it reveals almost a quarter of home care providers thought they would lose over 25 per cent of their staff, “creating a risk” that home care will not be available for “tens of thousands of older and disabled people” who need support in their own home.
The survey also reported around a third of providers would expect to lose under 10 per cent of their workforce, while 40 per cent reported that they would lose between 10 and 24 per cent of their staff. Over 90 per cent thought it was certain or likely that recruitment will become harder if this comes into force and over 80 per cent thought they would need to dismiss staff as a result.
Dr Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association said: “While progress is being made where currently 83.2 per cent of home care workers have had the first dose of vaccine, and 73.7 per cent the second dose.
“We understand people who use services, and their families expect care workers to be vaccinated. Vaccination is also desirable to help protect the health and safety of care workers themselves.
“The Homecare Association strongly supports vaccination of the homecare workforce and we lobbied hard, right from the beginning, to ensure it was as easy as possible for home care workers to access vaccinations.”
The the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
Paralympian runner Jonnie Peacock, who was awarded an MBE in 2013, has revealed how he built a “solid foundation of resilience over the years” and says “this is what has kept me going”.
For him determination is key, with his parents embedding this in him from an early age.
As a child, living with his parents and sister just outside of Cambridgeshire, he had dreamt of being a footballer but he faced an obstacle that would change the course of his life forever. In 1985, at the age of five, Jonnie contracted meningitis which saw him lose a leg.
At school Jonnie threw himself into everything, playing all sports and not holding back. In the hospital that fitted his prosthetic leg he found out about disability sport and was directed to a Paralympic sports talent day. In 2012 Jonnie won a gold medal, crowned a Paralympian at only nineteen years of age.
He is now working with Qube Learning, which runs apprenticeships and traineeships, to help inspire others to actively change their lives despite any disadvantages they may have in life.
He says: “I have built a solid foundation of resilience over the years, and I believe this is what has kept me going. When I was still at studying, I struggled to walk when my stump was sore so my mum would help carry me to school, I didn’t want to give in.
A petrol station owner is giving priority fuel access to care workers, after the petrol crisis left care staff desperate to fuel their cars to avoid missing home care visits with people who cannot get out of bed, feed themselves or go to the toilet on their own.
While some care workers considered staying overnight with people needing home care as petrol station forecourts ran empty on fuel, the owner of a BP Royal Garage in Huthwaite has agreed to give a priority service to NHS and social care workers after he was approached by home care provider Your Home Care.
Petrol station owner: ‘Home care workers need to get to work’
Sivapalan Krishanand (aka Kris) has agreed to offer exclusive time slots to health and social care workers between 6am-7am and 9.30pm-10.30pm every day until the fuel crisis subsides. Care workers will need to show ID badges before they can buy the fuel.
Krishanand said: “I am pleased to be able to help. Home care workers need to get to work and so this is our small way of helping out.”
To read the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
Dementia not Covid-19 was the greatest cause of death for women in 2020 – killing 45,922 women in England and Wales, official figures reveal.
Some 125 women are dying of dementia every day – that’s five women an hour, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In men, Covid caused the most deaths for men in England and Wales, followed by heart disease, after which dementia and Alzheimer’s disease came third by claiming the lives of over 24,000 men.
In the UK, dementia affects 850,000 people and there is no cure.
The number of people with dementia is set to triple in three decades, with 152 million estimated to be affected globally by 2050, according to research by the University of Washington School of Medicine.
The research was presented at the 2021 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Colorado at the end of July.
Dementia charities are calling for global action to fund research into a cure for dementia.
Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK has called dementia “our greatest long-term medical challenge”.
For the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
