Find out what happened when Leeds welcomed the Portuguese Aga Khan Foundation as part of their week-long study visit to the UK.
Leeds City Council’s Ageing Well Officer, Carole Clark, gives her account of the differences and similarities in how the communities and organisations in both countries engage with each other. Re-blogged from the Centre for Ageing Better blog. Continue reading
Mary, on the left, middle is granddaughter, right is Jo (service user) Behind Jo in green top is Eddie, Mary’s husband, and next to him is Mary’s son Peter
Shared Lives is an alternative to traditional residential respite and day services for people in need of support. The scheme offers personalised, quality care where carers share their lives and their homes with those they support.
The Leeds Shared Lives scheme helps family carers who take on the often emotionally and physically demanding care of a loved one by enabling them to have a break. They do this by providing day support and short breaks to service users. Shared Lives carers support adults with a wide range of care needs such as older people, adults with dementia or learning, physical or sensory difficulties.
Indi Matharu, Principal Service Manager, Leeds Shared Lives talks to Mary who has been a carer with the Shared lives Scheme for 37 years. Continue reading
It’s World Diabetes Day on 14 November, a day to raise awareness of diabetes and find out if there is anything we can do to help ourselves.
Diabetes UK say about a million people in the UK are thought to have Type2 diabetes and not yet know it. And knowing your risk at any point in time is of course helpful in avoiding or preventing a diagnosis of Type2 diabetes.
Take this simple test to find out your risk of Type 2 diabetes and what else you can do to minimise any risk. Find out more about diabetes, how can it effect you and what you can do
Bee Together is a Health for All’s, Time to Shine Project, looking at the reasons for social isolation and loneliness in Older People with a Learning Disability(OPLD).
Anna-Marie Garbutt, Health for All Time to Shine Community Learning Disabilities Project Coordinator tells us more about it. Continue reading
Flu season is nearly upon us and the best way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated before the end of November.
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health innovations in recent history and no other medical intervention has done more to save lives. The flu vaccine has been proved to reduce the number of deaths and hospital admissions. Studies have shown that the flu jab does work and will help prevent you getting the flu.
It’s not difficult to get a flu jab you can even get one while you’re doing your weekly shop in a supermarket so why are we all so reluctant? Read on to find out the answers Continue reading
The 1st of October is Older People’s Day which also coincides with the UN International Day of Older Persons.
Here in Leeds, we want to be an Age Friendly city and as part of that we support Older People’s Day which challenges negative attitudes and outdated stereotypes and focuses on celebrating the achievements and contributions that older people make to our society and the economy.
This year there are a number of different events based on the theme: ‘Trailblazers’ which will take place throughout Leeds between 29th September and 7th October.
They are all for older people, some aimed at the general public, others are only for members of the host organisation.
The events listed below are open to the public. If you wish to go along to observe or to take part in events which are open to the public please contact the host in advance, their contact details are listed along with the events details. Continue reading
You may have heard of asset-based community development (ABCD) which identifies the existing skills, talents and capacities of people and their communities to encourage change and development from within; the community’s strengths instead of its needs. The assumption is that, given the tools and the opportunity, small groups of local residents can change the things that they believe need changing in their community better than anyone else.
But how do you do that? What you need is a community builder, someone who can plant seeds at a neighbourhood level, who shares stories about people who do amazing things and creates a positive environment so that people can come together and form strong, cohesive and resilient communities.
Enter Teresa Milligan who works as a community builder in New Wortley, Leeds. Continue reading
