Recently, Clover House in Halifax has been named as one of the worst care homes in the country. A Care Quality Commission report dated 22nd May 2018 rated Clover House as inadequate in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led categories. The home supports up to 39 residents with dementia or other mental health issues yet the CQC found that there were not enough staff, mealtimes were chaos, staff were maneuvering residents in an unsafe and inappropriate manner and alarm systems which are used to alert staff to any falls were not being used. The CQC found that residents were not getting the correct nutrition and hydration that they needed.

This week has been Child Safety Awareness Week run by the Child Action Prevention Trust. Throughout the course of the week we have run a series of blogs focusing on child safety and how it can be enhanced. Risks to children exist in everyday life whether that be by way of accident, injury, exposure to content in social media or other online resource or more targeted harm in the form of physical or sexual violence.

This week we continue to support Child Safety Week run by Child Accident Prevention Trust to raise awareness of the risks of child accidents and how they can be prevented. Accidents involving children can easily happen inside or outside of the home. There are risks in everything we do but most parents and guardians hope to find the right balance in order to allow children to grow and explore their surroundings. Many accidents are preventable but unfortunately still happen as a result of the negligence of others.

A Deputy is a person appointed by the Court of Protection to manage the finances and/or personal welfare of another person who lacks the mental capacity to manage their affairs themselves. Once a person has lost their mental capacity a deputyship application by a third party may be necessary and indeed may be the only alternative if the person lacking capacity has not previously made a Lasting Power of Attorney.

There are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051. 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that’s one every three minutes. 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have dementia. 70 per cent of people in care homes have dementia or severe memory problems. There are over 40,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK. More than 25,000 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in the UK are affected.

​Ramsdens have been supporting Headway’s 2018 Action for Brain Injury Week campaign entitled You, me and brain injury this week. We have also taken part in Hats for Headway today, raising awareness and funds for Headway. As we have discussed in our recent blogs, suffering from a brain injury can have devastating effects on the individuals’ life together with their families. Headway’s campaign has highlighted success stories on how important support and awareness is. It is also Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day today where Spinal Injury Association, Aspire, Back Up, Spinal Research, and Spinal Injuries Scotland all come together to raise the profile of spinal injury and the devastation this can have on the injured and the people around them.

Life changing injuries. The definition of which will completely depend on your own experiences. For example, you may recall a recent story line in a well-known TV soap which focuses on the results of a horrific acid attack or perhaps the often daily news of our brave service men and women suffering loss of limbs. A footballer or athlete may believe a sprained ankle or broken arm is life changing or builder may consider a slip disk as a life changing injury.