News

A consultation process on policy proposals to extend age discrimination legislation to the provision of goods, facilities and services in Northern Ireland was launched on 3 July 2015.  The consultation will run for 14 weeks until 8 October 2015 and the process will be supported by a series of regional consultation events which will take place in Belfast and in each county. More information on events and the ways to contribute to the consultation is available here.

Older adults who have “successfully aged,” may be more prone to developing harmful drinking habits, says a recent study in BMJ Open. "Successful agers" are defined as adults who are healthy, active both physically and socially, and also wealthy. Researchers at Age UK focused on what forces might cause harmful drinking in older adults. The study included 9,251 men and women, all 50 or older, as part of the 2008-09 and 2010-11 English Longitudinal Study of Aging.

Scientists appear to have broken a decades-long deadlock in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease after announcing trial results for the first drug that appears to slow the pace of mental decline.The drug, called solanezumab, was shown to stave off memory loss in patients with mild Alzheimer’s over the course of several years. The effects would have been barely discernible to patients or their families, scientists said, and it is no cure. Read more here.

One of the great advances of the last century is that nearly all of us will live longer and with less disability than recent generations, Des O'Neill writes in the Irish Times.

For many community groups trying to provide services for older people, the barrier to achieving funding is the the process itself. This is where Age NI’s Comic Relief supported project Steps To Funding comes in. Through the project, Age NI runs funding workshops for local groups, supporting them to access financial support for activities that improve the lives of older people in their communities.

Institute of Public Health in Ireland will host its 4th Open Conference in Croke Park, Dublin, on Tuesday 13 October 2015. It recently launched a 2nd call for registration and submissions. The deadline for proposals for presentations is Friday 14 August 2015.

The aim of the Conference is to provide an open platform to:

The experience of older people with the nursing home system over the past few decades provides a new idiom for an easy mark, consultant geriatrician, Dr Des O’Neill writes in the Irish Times. “As easy as taking money from frail older people and their families” may not trip off the tongue as smoothly, but it neatly catches their experience at the hands of State agencies and the lack of public outrage.

The Department of Health (ROI) Review of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme was published by today, Monday 20 July 2015. The review is available on the Department’s website here.

The Review was carried out by the Department in collaboration with the Health Service Executive with input from Deloitte and Touche as external consultants.

Specific recommendations are to: