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News

Ongoing events can be found here

Events

New film being released "The Father" and his fight with dementia

This film, The Father is soon to be released for cinemas, stars Olivia Coleman and Anthony Hopkins as daughter and father, and is seen as the father's ordeal coping with the condition. The Mail states" The twist in Olivia's new film, The Father, is that although it deals with the heart wrenching topic of dementia, the story is told largely from the point of view of the sufferer".

Anthony, father to Olivia's character Anne, is an elegant widower in his eighties who lives in an airy London flat filled with books,paintings and opera, until his grip on reality starts to loosen".

Keep a look out for the release date

Prosthetic limb covers

A recently seen programme on BBC Wales followed Carol Vorderman back to her roots along with North Wales coast. She not only visited places of interest to her, but also highlighted engineering business which is her other love, apart from maths.

One such business is Limb Art, which design and make covers for Prosthetic limbs, so that a smooth leg line can be seen under trousers/ skirts. Many are bright and colouful, and might have a witty remark across them. There's a great one which relates to going to the pub, with a quip about being legless.

Until the designer explained about issues with a basic prosthetic, I had never given a thought to when wind blows and trouser cling to the artificial leg makiing to so obvious to others that the wearer is disabled. With a suitably designed cover, its more a case of showing off your disability and being proud. Check out the website for designs and further information: Click here

The advance in prosthetics

With ever increasing advances in prothetics being made it is hard to keep up with new devices being trialled and on to the market. Yes many cost a great deal, but without prototypes and their fine tuning to the disabled marketplace, where would we be?

3D printing is making regular parts for some who might previously have gone without high cost metal prosthetics. The dexterity required for manual functions is now possible using finely tuned hands available in this field. Add on limbs are no longer considered as SciFi, and disabled people being offered them is increasing. One regular BBC programme Click, keeps you up to date with the evolution of such products, and has regular slots on the 24 hour news channel too. To sample a programme check out this edition on Youtube to see what I mean. Click here

New Autism Act

Almost 10 years after the Autism Act became law in 2009, a new Autism Act was due to be in place by November 18th 2019. BUT, due to the chaotic political sitaution in the UK with Brexit and a General Election, the Autism Act was delayed until January 2020. Further delays are still ongoing, but check out the latest news and understanding of Autism by visiting the National Austistic Society website: Click here

and search under "What we do" for the latest news.

Mental Health Partnership Board

A Mental Health Partnership Board has been re-established in Herefordshire. This is good news, that such an important subject is being taken seriously.

HDU is represented along with around twenty other organisations, "Experts by experience", plus those who commission our services, the NHS, who support service users and their families. The "Experts by Experience" help guide the development feeding back both positive and negative points so as to improve services.Obviously since Covid meetings are virtual, but this has still been positive. We are chaired by Dr Simon Lenanne, from Alton Street Surgery in Ross on Wye, who is at the forefront of mental health and dementia in the county.

Reasonable Adjustments in Hospitals

The 2010 Equality Act requires services, including health services, to make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled people so that those services are equally accessible to them.

This legal requirement is especially important in the light of continued concerns about mortality amongst disabled people in hospitals. For instance, Heslop et al. (2013) showed that people with learning disabilities were dying between 13-20 years sooner than the general population, with many of those deaths avoidable and traced to insufficiencies or poor practice in health care.

A recent survey by Bristol University concerns actions taken by the NHS when treating people with disabilities. Some local residents from Herefordshire were part of this research, and a report, plus posters has now been published on the university's website. The direct link can be accessed here. Click here

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