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Carnival Time in
Stanley Street
CARNIVAL time is coming to a Liverpool city centre street.
6 giant carnival puppets, accompanied by music, will be in Stanley
Street on Saturday, 7 July 2012, as the highlight of an afternoon focusing
on what the street has to offer.
Brouhaha International are bringing the puppets as a preview of the
Liverpool International Carnival. The carnival event (midday
to 3pm) will be opened by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Sharon
Sullivan.
Councillor Nick Small, cabinet member for employment, enterprise and
skills, said:- “We want to see the Stanley Street buzzing,
especially in the run up to Liverpool Pride on 4 August. We have
staged a number of special events there in recent months and have
more special days to come.
Many more people now use Stanley Street as they travel into the city
centre via Moorefield and we want to make sure they use the cafés
and bars there; they will find it is a lively, vibrant area with a
lot on offer.”
On 7 July 2012, artisan traders will provide the best of fine food and
drink, arts and crafts and vintage clothes. And a number of
bars; including the newly reopened Bar Wickid - will open with
pavement cafes providing a chance for people to sit out and enjoy
the spectacle. The bars are also promising to do something different
to their established night time offer with the long established
Lisbon pub, for example, serving Thai food and drag artistes from
local venues will vie with each other to show the giant puppets how
to work the street to the beat of carnival.
And to make sure everybody hears about what is happening the Town
Crier, Terry Stubbings, will be greeting passengers coming out of
Moorfields as they come into Stanley Street.
Bouhaha’s Liverpool International Carnival “De Paradise – A Life
Beyond” takes place on 14 July 2012.
Carers
overwhelmed by respite guilt.
CARERS in the North West experience huge
feelings of guilt at the prospect of sending their disabled, frail
or elderly loved ones into residential care even for just a few
days, research has revealed.
In the wake of Care Services Minister Paul Burstow’s promise to
provide more support for unpaid family carers to gain access to
respite breaks, disability charity Vitalise; which runs the
Sandpipers respite break centre in Southpor; has revealed that
worries over the quality of residential care is preventing family
carers from taking up respite opportunities.
The study, issued by Vitalise during Carers Week 2012, found that
57% of carers felt guilty about needing to use respite care and that
worries about the quality of the respite experience were a
significant barrier.
The study also found that carers want more choice and control over
their respite care and short breaks. 70% of carers surveyed felt
that a break from caring, even for a few days, was ‘important’ or
‘very important’.
The research, commissioned by Vitalise, collated the findings of
research conducted by various organisations over the past five
years. It has been issued during Carers Week 2012 as evidence that
more needs to be done to improve the quality of respite care for
disabled and older people.
There are estimated to be over 150,000 known carers in the North
West region, with potentially many tens of thousands more who do not
appear in statistics. In the UK, around 1 person in 8 is in some
kind of caring role. Unpaid carers save the UK economy around £119
billion each year.
Vitalise Chief Executive Chris Simmonds said:- "We welcome
Paul Burstow’s pledge to give carers better access to respite, but
what our study clearly shows is that family carers have no
confidence in the quality or suitability of the respite care on
offer. This is the real issue here.
The sad fact is that carers’ fears are quite justified. In many
cases respite care amounts to little more than warehousing for
disabled or older people, so it’s not surprising that carers would
rather struggle on at home, risking their own health in the process.
Unless the fundamental issue of quality in respite care is
addressed, this problem will only get worse. Access to regular, good
quality respite breaks for people with disabilities and those who
care for them should not be considered a luxury but an absolute
essential in enabling families affected by disability to carry on
coping."
Vitalise provides essential short breaks in a holiday environment
for people with disabilities; including Alzheimer’s and dementia;
and carers at three accessible UK Centres, with 24 hour nursing care
on-call, personal support and a range of accessible excursions,
activities and entertainment.
People with disabilities and carers wanting more advice and
information about Vitalise breaks are requested to call them on:- 0303 303
0145, or
visit their website at:-
vitalise.org.uk.
Southport author to appear at
festival
SOUTHPORT author Liz Kessler is to appear at
the Manchester Children’s Book Festival. Liz will be introducing her
first book for younger readers inspired by her Dalmatian puppy,
Poppy the Pirate Dog, and talking about her other novels for young
people aged from 8 to 13, A Year Without Autumn, the Emily Windsnap
series and the Philippa Fisher series.
The event will take place on
Saturday, 30 June 2012, from 1pm to 2pm, at Manchester Metropolitan
University’s Geoffrey Manton Building. Tickets cost:- £6.60 for
adults and:- £4.40 for concessions. To book, ring:- 0843 2080500 or
visit:-
mcbf.org.uk. The Manchester
Children’s Book Festival is organised by the Manchester School of
Writing, with Poet Laureate and MMU Professor Carol Ann Duffy as
Creative Director. |
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Coronary
rehabilitation programmes in Europe are underused, 'with poor
referral and low participation'
LARGE proportions of
European coronary patients are not benefitting from cardiac
rehabilitation services, according to results of the third
EUROASPIRE survey published in the European Journal of
Preventive Cardiology. Yet despite the evidence that cardiac
rehabilitation is very effective for patients with coronary heart
disease, this latest study shows that services in Europe are much
underused, with poor referral and a low participation rate.
"There is still considerable potential for cardiac
rehabilitation programmes to further reduce the risk of fatal and
non-fatal cardiovascular events," say the investigators.
The survey, the biggest in Europe on the secondary prevention of
heart disease, showed that 44.8% of all patients with coronary heart
disease (CHD) were advised to follow a rehabilitation programme, but
only 36.5% took part in some form of cardiac rehabilitation. Yet, of
those who were advised to attend a programme, 80% agreed and did so.
The EUROASPIRE survey, conducted on behalf of the European Society
of Cardiology (ESC), analysed medical records and interviewed almost
9000 patients with CHD in 22 countries of Europe. Much variation
between countries was found, with highest rehabilitation attendance
reported in Lithuania and Ireland, the lowest in Turkey, Cyprus and
Russia, and virtually no attendance in Greece and Spain.
"These differences are most likely to reflect the heterogeneity of
healthcare systems and the availability of cardiac rehabilitation
services in some regions of Europe," said the authors.
► In France 32.4% of CHD patients were advised to attend
rehabilitation, and of those advised 90% attended.
► In Germany 56.6% were advised, and 91.1% attended.
► In Italy 51.5% were advised, and 88.7% attended.
► In the UK 43.0% were advised, and 80.6 attended.
► In Spain 3% were advised and < 1% attended.
The study also found that patients who had coronary artery bypass
surgery were more likely to be offered and attend rehabilitation
programmes than those in other diagnostic categories. Smokers, older
patients and those with lower educational attainment were also less
likely to attend.
As background to the report the authors note that cardiac
rehabilitation is recommended by the European Society of Cardiology,
the American Heart Association and the American College of
Cardiology in the treatment of patients with CHD. It is a
cost-effective intervention following an acute coronary event and
improves prognosis by reducing recurrent hospitalisation and health
care costs, while prolonging life. Indeed, cardiac rehabilitation
compares favourably in terms of cost per life year saved with other
well-established interventions such as percutaneous coronary
interventions or coronary artery bypass surgery.
Investigator Dr Kornelia Kotseva from the National Heart & Lung
Institute in London described the results as a major cause for
concern. "There is an urgent need to raise the standard of
secondary prevention," she said.
EUROASPIRE III is the3rd survey of the series and was carried out
in patients from 76 coronary care centres in Europe. Consecutive
patients with a diagnosis of CHD were identified, and interviewed
and examined at least 6 months after their coronary event. Earlier
reports have shown that many coronary patients do not achieve
lifestyle, risk factor and therapeutic targets for cardiovascular
disease prevention as set out in the guidelines. There were wide
variations in risk-factor prevalence and use of cardioprotective
drug therapies between countries.
A comparison between the 13 countries which participated in both the
EUROASPIRE II and III surveys showed that the proportion of patients
advised to follow a cardiac rehabilitation programme increased from
44.5 to 55.7%, and that the participation rate also increased from
38.0 to 46.1%. It was also shown in EUROASPIRE III that those
patients attending a cardiac rehabilitation programme smoked less
(with higher smoking cessation rates), and had significantly better
total cholesterol control and higher use of cardoprotective
medications than found in EUROASPIRE II.
"Although these results are encouraging. There is still considerable potential for cardiac
rehabilitation programmes to further reduce the risk of fatal and
non-fatal cardiovascular events. Many patients referred to and
participating to a cardiac rehabilitation programme do not achieve
the lifestyle and risk factor target.
To achieve the clinical benefits of a prevention programme, we need
to integrate professional lifestyle interventions with effective
risk factor management and evidence-based drug therapies
appropriately adapted to the medical, cultural and economic setting
of a country. The challenge is to engage and motivate cardiologists,
physicians and health professionals to routinely practice high
quality preventive cardiology in a health care system which invests
in prevention." said Dr
Kotseva
Today, cardiac rehabilitation has evolved from supervised exercise
sessions and return-to-work training in patients recovering from
heart attack or cardiac surgery into more comprehensive programmes
which include health education on smoking, diet and physical
activity, risk-factor management (control of blood pressure,
cholesterol levels and diabetes), and the use of prophylactic drug
therapies. The World Health Organisation describes cardiac
rehabilitation as "the sum of activities required to influence
favourably the underlying cause of the disease, as well as the best
possible physical, mental and social conditions, so that they may,
by their own efforts preserve or resume when lost, as normal a place
as possible in the community."
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