The Managing Care Team at the Great London Care Award on 22 October 2011.

Do you care for a relative or a friend?

Managing Care will be organising FREE Workshops for family carers.

Our workshops are designed for family and friends who care for their loved-ones. The workshops are a chance to learn more about how to deal with certain challenges you face when you care for a relative or friend. It is also an opportunity to speak to our Care Manager, professional carers and meet people in a similar situation.

Our workshops are free of charge and are part of our commitment to support those in our community who care for their family or friends.

WORKSHOP CALENDAR – NOVEMBER – DECEMBER

How to deal with challenging behaviour as a family carer

Wednesday 9 Nov – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Putney Office

How to find care at home that suits your situation

Wednesday 23 Nov – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Putney Office

Caring for a loved-one with dementia

Wednesday 7 Dec – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Putney Office

REGISTRATION:

To attend one or all of our workshops, please register your attendance on,

Tel. 0208 788 7936 or via email, info@managingcare.co.uk

MANAGING CARE, 9 DISRAELI ROAD, PUTNEY SW15 2DR, TEL. 020 788 7936

Richard won the Dignity in Care Award

Richard Traill, Dementia Carer at Managing Care, Putney, has won the prestigious Dignity in Care Award at this year’s Great London Care Awards.

The Great London Care Awards, supported by the Department of Health, are part of the Great British Care Awards, a series of regional and national awards which celebrate excellence in social care and pay tribute to those who work in the sector throughout England.

Esther Pfeiffer, Director of Managing Care said; “Richard is a wonderful carer and we are very proud of his achievements, he demonstrates clear empathy to all his clients and provides a dignified and personalised service. Richard thoroughly deserves this recognition and now we will all keep our fingers crossed and wish him lots of luck for the national finals in London.”

In awarding the best Dignity accolade, the panel of judges was particularly impressed with Richard Traills experience, commenting: “Richard’s abilities shone through and demonstrated fantastic interpersonal skills and beyond that he showed insight and understanding of the wider social issues around dignity.”

Richard Traill, Dementia Carer at Managing Care said; “In my view, caring for someone else involves being sensitive to their needs, as well as, being aware of their trust and responsibility that they have taken on. I have spent many hours sitting beside client, singing along with him to his favourite records and seeing in the glint in his eyes the joy that a lifetime of memories can bring.”

Managing Care, which is based in Putney, was presented with the award by BBC’s Debra Stephenson  at a glittering ceremony held at The Brewery, London on Saturday 22nd October 2011. As a regional winner, Managing Care now qualifies for the national finals which will take place in 2012 in London.

Kim van Dongen, Director of Managing Care, said, “These awards recognise and pay tribute to the efforts and dedication of all those who work tirelessly to ensure that so many people are able to continue to live independent lives. The people of Putney are incredibly fortunate to have such dedicated people, like our staff at Managing Care, caring for the vulnerable and elderly members of their communities.”

Managing Care is rapidly building a reputation as one of the London’s leading domiciliary care companies specialising in elderly care. Their home care  award winning service is tailored to the needs of individual clients with companionship, home help, personal care, meal preparation, housekeeping, respite care and specialist dementia and alzheimers care.

Managing Care director Esther Pfeiffer was speaking after the report release by CQC on the state of the health and social care.

“The report from CQC shows that nursing homes are less compliant with CQC standards than other social care services.  The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its third annual report to Parliament on the state of health and adult social care in England. The report covers the period April 2010 until March 2011. Just 51% of nursing homes were fully compliant with the standard on care and welfare. This compares with a full compliance rate of 68% for residential homes and 73% for homecare agencies. CQC will be piloting new methodologies to introduce more unannounced elements to the care sector. CQC will gather from their review a set of tools that is more flexible in responding to this changing model of care.” ’explained Esther Pfeiffer whose company, Managing Care Ltd, provides personal care, home help, dementia and respite care throughout London and Surrey.

Esther Pfeiffer added: “Managing Care prides itself with regular quality checks. Our Care Managers visit clients on a regular basis to re-assess needs, support our carers with on-going training and monitor the quality of the service with regular unannounced checks. This will ensure our carers are providing the service that has been agreed and to ensure clients and their families are fully content with every aspect of the service.” Managing Care has been awarded Care Awards in many areas including, The Dignity in Care Award, The Dementia Carer Award, Putting People First Award, The Care Trainer Award and The Care Employer Award in recognition of the consistent quality of services and standards we provide for people living in their own homes.

Starting this month Managing Care will be organising FREE Monthly Workshops for family carers in four of our locations, Putney, Kingston, Ealing and Barnet.

Our workshops are intended for people who look after a family member or friend and feel that they could use some support or advice.

Subjects of the Workshops:

- Caring for a loved-one with dementia

- How to deal with challenging behaviour in dementia as a family carer

- Looking after yourself as a carer

- How to find care at home that suits your situation

Our workshops are designed for family and friends who care for their loved-ones. The workshops are a chance to learn more about how to deal with certain challenges you face when you care for a relative or friend. It is also an opportunity to speak to our Care Manager, professional carers and meet people in a similar situation.

Our workshops are free of charge and are part of our commitment to support those in our community who care for their loved-ones.

REGISTRATION:

To attend one of our workshops, please register your attendance on,

Tel. 0208 788 7936 or via email, info@managingcare.co.uk

WORKSHOP CALENDAR

Every 1st Wednesday of the Month – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Putney Office

Every 2nd Wednesday of the Month – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Kingston Office

Every 3rd Wednesday of the Month – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Ealing Office

Every 4th Wednesday of the Month – from 12:00 to 13:00 – Barnet Office

If the above dates or times are not suitable, please feel free to call us to arrange a one-to-one meeting.

Relaunch Age UK Wandsworth

From left to right: Kim van Dongen (Co-Founder of Managing Care), Nizam Chowdhury (Age UK Wandsworth), Tony O’Flaherty (Home Instead Senior Care), Michelle David (Care Manager at Managing Care), Claire Bresnahan (Eternal Care)

Last week Age UK Wandsworth celebrated its relaunch. Earlier this year Age Concern and Help the Aged merged into one organisation, now called Age UK.

Leading local home care agencies attended the event at the premises of Age UK in Wandsworth. Amongst the agencies was award-winning agency Managing Care Ltd, based in Putney. Age UK and Managing Care have been working together for years to provide quality care to elderly people in the local community of South West London.

“It is great for vulnerable people in our community to have a charity like Age UK in the area. The charity gives impartial advice on which organisation can help people best, whether this is for personal care, home help, companionship or other home care services.” says Kim van Dongen, Director of Managing Care.

Now daffodils are being farmed high on remote Welsh mountains – to halt the progress of different types of dementia. The flowers are grown on the slopes of the Black Mountains of Mid-Wales after trials showed that location produced blooms with greater concentrations of galantamine than those grown in lower areas.

The drug, Reminyl (galantamine) is already recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from Swindon have shown that it can also be beneficial in treating vascular dementia, which is caused by damage to the blood vessels leading to the brain.

Findings presented to the World Congress of Neurology in London in June showed Reminyl improved memory, orientation and language skills. Patients taking the drug were able to perform activities such as bathing, dressing and doing housework.

?Alzheimer’s Disease is a very serious illness growing in incidence as the population ages. Anyone who is suffering from this or has a family member with it will understand the enormous strains on care resources that this disease has. Any drug that can help these patients ward off and delay the most debilitating symptoms must be brought into mainstream medicine as soon as possible,? says Esther Pfeiffer, Director at Managing Care, a home care agency that provides specialised dementia care, personal care and companionship services in London and Surrey.

Research

Just under 600 patients with vascular or mixed dementia took part in a six-month study. Reminyl was given to 396 patients, and a placebo was given to the remaining 196. From this group, 459 people (295 of whom had been on the drug, and 164 who had not) took part in a further six-month study where they all took Reminyl.

The study found after 12 months, those patients who had been taking the drug throughout the study had better cognitive abilities than when they began the treatment. Those who took the placebo for the first six months saw their mental awareness decline, though after being on the drug for six months, they also improved.

The drug works by preventing the breakdown a brain chemical crucial to memory and learning. It also stimulates proteins in the brain to produce more of the key chemical.

Potential

The study has the potential to make an impact on the way dementia is treated throughout the world. It follows research, which showed people with high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels have a much higher risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease as they get older.

“In Britain, there are 750,000 people with some form of dementia in the UK and that’s going to go up as people get older,” says Kim van Dongen, Director at Managing Care, a home care agency that provides specialised dementia care, personal care and companionship services in London and Surrey.

“All people with dementia deserve access to drug treatments that give them precious time and quality of life when they need it most.?

Handling the news that you or a loved one has dementia

Receiving the news that you or a person that is close to you is showing signs that they have developed dementia is seldom easy. The news when it comes is often very difficult to digest, even when you are aware of all of the warning signs. When the diagnosis is finally made it may still feel like a bolt from the blue. There are however two points that are worth bearing in mind. Firstly, diagnosing dementia or indeed confirming the type of dementia an individual has developed can be a lengthy drawn out process. Secondly, the news when it is confirmed is likely to add new emotional as well as financial pressures on you and your family. It is however possible to take a number of proactive steps in order to get a handle over the situation. The most important of which is to begin making plans for the future as soon as possible. This will inevitably involve ensuring that you have a support structure in place. You may for instance wish to contact friends and family to inform them, as appropriate, of the life changes that you are going through. By opening channels of communication with family, friends and health professionals you will be putting in place the emotional support structures that you can rely on in the journey ahead. You should also begin putting some thought into the type of care that would suit your individual circumstances. You may for instance wish to consider whether you would in the long term like to continue receiving care in the comfort of your own home or whether you would much rather prefer to receive care in a more communal setting such as that provided in a residential nursing home.