News

Fear of crime is a major issue for older people, Bill Carson, Age Sector Platform writes in a piece for the Belfast Telegraph. He notes, however, that older people are still unlikely to be targets of crime. Read more here.

About 168,000 older people have stopped receiving help with essential tasks such as eating, washing and getting dressed as a result of deep and continuing cuts to social care under the UK's coalition government, a report from Age UK says. Read more here.

Minister Kathleen Lynch, Minister with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality & Mental Health, today [Wednesday, 05 March 2014] awarded certificates to the first 16 graduates of Age & Opportunity’s Creative Exchanges innovative programme.

A new animation film, by Spanish director Ignacio Ferreras, follows the story of Emilio, a retired bank manager placed in a care home and suffering from Alzheimer's. A stark yet touching account of life in a long-term care home the film is set for a limited UK and Ireland release. Read The Guardian Review.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), physical and social environments are key determinants of whether people can remain healthy, independent and autonomous long into their old age. Creating age-friendly environments is therefore one of the most effective approaches to respond to demographic change. To support this approach, the AFE-INNOVNET thematic network on innovation for age-friendly environments (AFE) kicked off today with the support of the European CIP ICT PSP Programme and will run for two years.

The Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester, UK is advertising a 3 year Research Associate position to work on an exciting new EU funded project called MEETING DEM. For full details please visit http://www.worcester.ac.uk/community/job-vacancy-research-associate-in-dementia-studies.html The closing date for applications is 13th March.

A “small but significant” proportion of female carers experience death thoughts, a forthcoming Australian study will show, adding to the growing body of evidence on suicide-related thoughts and behaviours in carers.

The research from Griffith University found that 7.1 per cent of female carers had felt life was not worth living, also known as having death thoughts, in the previous week, compared with 5.7 per cent of non-carers. Read more here.

By the latest estimate, as many as 135 million people in the world will have Alzheimer’s disease by mid-century. That’s a whole lot of people who will have difficulty taking care of themselves.