Calls for change as six people die amid self-neglect
The review looked at the cases of six people who died between March 2020 and August 2023. They were aged between 58 and 79 and had a range of conditions including dementia, diabetes and motor neurone disease. They had failing health, engaged in risky behaviour and neglected their personal health, with some living in squalid conditions and withdrawing from society.Three repeatedly rejected offers of help.There was a delay in acting, or working with families and in some cases the means of communication were not appropriate, the review ruled.Self-neglect is slow to be picked up as a form of abuse or neglect and some agencies may not have training on recognising the signs, the review found.
It also found there are long waits for assessment, and many agencies provide "only short, time-limited interventions".The review included a number of recommendations including development of guidance on engaging people who may refuse help.Professor Preston-Shoot said: "We have to support practitioners until they are really confident in conducting mental capacity assessments. "I think we also have to support practitioners more effectively to express compassionate inquiry... to endeavour to have conversations with an individual about what the history is, what lies behind the presenting issues."SSAB bosses held an event last week to identify good practice and reflect on the review.
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Doctors issue urgent warning after world's most infectious disease kills child in Liverpool - more deaths 'a tragic inevitablity'
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While no details have been released about their care, they were one of 17 youngsters treated at the hospital in recent weeks after becoming severely unwell with the illness. Health chiefs say it is vital uptake of both jabs is at least 95 per cent, to prevent outbreaks of the highly infectious conditions, which spread easily between the unvaccinated. Nationally, the figure stands at 85.2 per cent—a slight uptick on late 2024 but still one of the lowest in a decade. The MMR jab is first offered to children aged one, with the second dose given soon after they turn three. Two doses offer up to 99 per cent protection against the conditions. Professor Sir Andrew Pollard director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford said: 'There were almost 3000 cases of measles last year including one death, and over 500 reported by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) by the beginning of July this year. 'With the virus circulating at a high level across the country it was a tragic inevitability that further deaths would occur, as has been reported in Liverpool. 'Measles is a serious disease associated with life-threatening complications but the virus can be eliminated. 'The UK did achieve elimination status from the World Health Organisation, but sadly lost this badge of honour in 2019.' Meanwhile, Professor Ian Jones, an expert in virology at the University of Reading, added: 'If measles is circulating in the community because of low vaccination rates, sooner or later it will find its way to kids who are already unwell, where the infection can be catastrophic. 'While deaths from measles in the developed world are rare, the risk can be entirely discharged by vaccination and the lead Alder Hey have taken to vaccinate kids entering A&E is admirable. 'But the community message is the one to reiterate. 'Get your kids vaccinated, both for your own kids' sake and to prevent the virus reaching those who are more vulnerable.' Dubbed 'the world's most infectious disease', measles, which mostly produces flu-like symptoms and the tell-tale rash, can cause very serious and even fatal health complications if it spreads to the lungs or the brain. One in five children who get infected will be hospitalised, according to estimates, with one in 15 developing serious complications like meningitis or sepsis. 'The death is heartbreaking because it's entirely preventable,' said Professor Helen Bedford, an expert in children's health at University College London. 'No child needs to even catch the disease let alone be seriously affected or die.' Professor Adam Finn, an expert in paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said: 'When measles was a universal illness of childhood and vaccination became available, having your child protected was an obvious choice for parents. 'Once it became rare after universal vaccination was implemented, many people forgot about measles. 'It seems to be a tragic fact that we are now starting to see cases and the first death from measles in the UK for many years and that this may be the only way that everybody is reminded that it is important to prevent this entirely preventable infection.' In Liverpool, only 73 per cent of children aged five have received the necessary two shots, while in parts of London uptake is below 65 per cent. By contrast, almost all children have received both doses of the MMR vaccine by the age of five in Rutland (97.6 per cent) and Northumberland (95 per cent), latest UKHSA data shows. According to The Sunday Times, the tragic death of a child in Liverpool is believed to be the second fatality from an acute measles infection over the last decade in the UK. Health officials in Liverpool have said that the number of measles infections currently being treated at Alder Hey Hospital mean there are likely more infections than are officially reported and suggests Merseyside is on the cusp of a significant large-scale outbreak. Last week, public health officials wrote an open letter to parents in the region, urging them to get their children vaccinated. Professor Matt Ashton, director of public health for Liverpool, said: 'I'm extremely worried that the potential is there for measles to really grab hold in our community. My concern is the unprotected population and it spreading like wildfire. 'That's why we're trying to be proactive. It's really important that people understand the seriousness of this. 'We're not in a large-scale outbreak situation at the moment but what we are seeing is sporadic cases popping up more and more frequently, to the point where Alder Hey is really worried about the people presenting at the front door and needing treatment.'
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
No, age isn't just a number – and the sooner we realise that, the happier we will be
Sitting in a cafe recently, I saw a poster advertising a barista training course for young people interested in a career in hot beverages. Things in the NHS being what they are, I enjoyed losing myself in a fantasy future spent standing behind a sleek, shiny machine, having witty exchanges with customers and colleagues as I skilfully poured smooth, foaming milk into silky dark espresso, tipping and turning each cup to create my own unique artworks on the coffee surface. That was until I read the small print, which included the rather brutal definition of 'young people' as aged 18 to 24. I realised, with an internal gasp, that my limited ability to pour liquid without spilling it was not the only obstacle to this career choice. There was a core personal reality here from which I had become totally untethered: the passing of time. This untethering is bad news for anyone interested in building a better life. A lot of nonsense is spoken and sung and written on plates and pencil cases about how we should all stay young and never grow old. But I've discovered as a therapist and as a patient in psychoanalysis that the capacity to anchor yourself in the reality of time passing is fundamental to good mental health, and to the potential for life to get better. Whether it's infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, midlife, early old age or your final chapter, every new life stage brings the opportunity to mourn the loss of what has gone before, to grow through and around it, and develop into the person you are right now. It is a chance to work through something and change. So buying into the 'age is just a number' philosophy – consciously or unconsciously – robs us of the valuable experience of feeling rooted in our personal timeline. Of feeling rooted in something true. Middle age has a reputation for being staid and frumpy. But when I got stuck into the interviews about this life stage for my book about growing up throughout adulthood, I saw that it can be a particularly fertile period for people who can face the reality that there will soon be more time behind them than there is ahead. Recognising this obvious but shocking fact meant this chapter of their lives was not lacklustre, but more full of life than the ones that went before, fuelled by a different kind of energy. This moment was a chance to make important changes and focus on what they really wanted from their second half. As I now enter my midlife, I am clearly struggling to truly believe that my 'young person' chapter is ending. I think it's because I don't want to accept the losses. We expect the feelings of loss that follow a death. As devastating as this grief can be, it can sometimes feel more understandable than the losses that come with life, development and growth. My young daughter has helped me to see this very clearly, forcing me to face ordinary losses that leave me totally gutted. Her 'gooster', which a week later became her scooter will never again be a 'gooster'. I was not prepared for this loss of a word that seemed so entirely her, which has now been so carelessly dropped by her – but longingly clung to by me. This is my most painful work of motherhood so far. Aside from the sleep deprivation. And the mastitis. OK, maybe not the most painful, but it's up there. How to let these parts of her go, while understanding they are still inside her somewhere; how to let her become her own person, rather than getting so caught up in my own feelings about who she has been to me. How to hold and love her tightly and loosely at the same time, giving her the space to grow into the child, then adolescent, then adult she will be. Some mornings, I collect her from her cot and am momentarily stunned: who is this child who looks so much older than the toddler I sang to sleep last night? Where is my baby? It's that moment of shock – like the internal gasp when I read the small print of the poster in the cafe – that jolts me out of my comfortable bubble, reintroducing me to the devastating reality of the passing of time and the losses it brings. The good news is that when the bubble pops, growth becomes possible. If we can allow ourselves to move in and out and back again through the different life stages – as my daughter moves through toddlerhood, and as I move into midlife – we can grow around our younger selves, not away from ourselves. It's like Gianna Williams told me, speaking of her work as a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst: 'We're always finding the infant, the young child, the adolescent in the patient. Like the circles in a tree, they're all there.' That's what it means to me to grow up, rather than just growing older. And if we can keep doing that, then we have a chance at building a better life until our very end. Moya Sarner is an NHS psychotherapist and the author of When I Grow Up – Conversations With Adults in Search of Adulthood Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
BBC News
an hour ago
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Is resident doctors' pay down 20%, and aftermath of Gaza water queue strike
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