Features

With an ageing population, finding centenarians is becoming less rare, but a 99 year old enjoying independent living is still quite a find.

Miss Jean Butchart is her own boss, with her own home, friends and hobbies. When asked what her secret was, she retorted: “Your guess is as good as mine!”

Born in Newcastle, Jean Butchart moved to Scotland aged six months where she grew up and qualified as a teacher in Domestic Science and Home Economics. During the war Miss Butchart taught in a Herefordshire school until a role in Aberdeen’s College of Domestic Science brought Jean to the Granite City in 1948.

This Volunteers’ Week, national learning disability charity Hft is celebrating its 110 volunteers, who have dedicated more than 8,000 hours of their time in the last year. 

The charity offers various opportunities for volunteering, ranging from corporate volunteering and fundraising to a buddy scheme. Volunteers have the chance to make a difference to the lives of people with learning disabilities, while also gaining confidence, skills and new friendships as a result. 

Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) is celebrating 50 years of achievement, therapy and fun through horses with a stunning online collection of portraits and stories from all over the UK. 

Designed to challenge preconceptions about disability, volunteering and the world of horses, 50 faces is a celebration of the brilliant, fearless and pioneering people who make up the RDA family.

Right from the start, RDA has helped to open up the world of horses to everyone. The charity’s radical mission in 1969 that ‘no disabled person who could benefit from riding shall be denied the opportunity of doing so’ was the start of a quiet revolution that is still breaking down barriers today. 

Acorn Stairlifts has announced plans to raise £20,00 for Marie Curie to fund 1,000 hours of care from its specially trained nurses.  

Continuing the partnership between UK-based stairlift manufacturer and Marie Curie, £10 will be donated to the charity for every stairlift installed before 9thJune. 

Acorn Stairlifts already installs up to 60 free stairlifts each year to Marie Curie patients, helping support people living with terminal illness by giving them the freedom to be cared for at home. 

Caren Larkman-Ayre, national sales manager at Acorn Stairlifts, said: “We’re very proud to be supporting Marie Curie, a charity that does amazing work caring for people during exceptionally difficult times.

Tapping into the Therapeutic Benefits of Riding with Accessibility Mark

Barnfields Riding Stables based in Chingford, London is looking forward to welcoming more disabled riders to take to the saddle, thanks to Accessibility Mark.

Located near the popular horse riding locations of High Beach and Epping Forest, Barnfields Stables offer lessons to riders of all abilities but specialise in novice and nervous riders.

Owner Natasha Burke decided to apply for accreditation after finding details of the joint scheme between the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) and the British Equestrian Federation online.

Accessibility Mark aims to provide riding schools with the knowledge to confidently deliver sessions to disabled riders.

Findings reveal people with mental health conditions waiting too long for workplace support

Some people with mental health conditions could be waiting for over a year for employers to put in place much needed workplace adjustments, new findings published today show. 

The findings come from The Great Big Workplace Adjustments Survey 2019, a comprehensive study of disability and long-term conditions conducted by Business Disability Forum and based on the views of over 1,200 employees and managers working with adjustments.

The new findings announced today relate specifically to the experiences of the 385 respondents with mental health conditions and/or workplace stress who took part in the study. 

The responses show the following:

Swiss Cottage School teacher, Tom Casson, co-founder of ‘How Do I?’ has developed a new app to allow people to live, learn and work more independently.
Tom explained, ‘How Do I?’ harnesses NFC technology to teach life and vocational skills through easy to access step-by-step videos.

Swiss Cottage School in the London Borough of Camden, meets the needs of children aged 2-19 with complex learning difficulties, emotional, behavioural and communication difficulties and those on the Autistic Spectrum Continuum. ‘How do I?’ is a social enterprise, majority owned by the Swiss Cottage School Charity.

Tom has been at the school for six years. Starting as a teaching assistant. He has now been teaching life skills for three years.

CREATING a power of attorney should be as commonplace as a will and failure to do so causes needless distress and frustration for family members, according to a leading expert.

Euan Fleming, Partner, Head of Private Client Law at Gilson Gray, believes appointing a power of attorney is as important and, in some cases, potentially more important than setting up a will.

The unpredictable nature of health can leave many – often irrespective of age – unable to sort their affairs for themselves.

Family members with no power of attorney are left helpless and unable to step in, causing issues during what is already a distressing time.

Some situations require specialist equipment in an emergency – when a child’s condition and associated behaviours put their lives at risk of serious injury or death.  Despite most local health and social care services having jointly commissioned integrated equipment stores to cater for the emergency needs of adults, no such public service exists to respond to the urgent, often life-threatening, needs of disabled or terminally ill children.  As a country we’re failing some of the most vulnerable in our society.

For the past five years Newlife has been running the UK’s first and only Emergency Loan service, delivering specialist equipment to disabled children in crisis within 72 hours of request.