May News

Understanding Disability Awards 2010

Most Adults could not Handle a Child's Asthma Attack

Children will eat more fruit 'as long as it looks good'

'Long-term Harm' of Too Much TV for Toddlers

Understanding Disability Awards 2010

Nominations are being invited for the 2010 Understanding Disability Awards. The awards celebrate the active engagement and commitment of individuals and groups for promoting positive attitudes towards people with learning disabilities. Nominees must be residents based in Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Newport or Bridgend. Nomination forms can be obtained from Hasina Kaderbhai, tel: 029 20227800 or downloaded from www.parentsfed.org. The closing date for nominations is 1 June 2010.

Healthy Start Vitamins Pilot Launched

A pilot project to provide free Healthy Start multivitamins to all children up to the age of four and pregnant and breastfeeding women is underway. The pilot is taking place across Cardiff and will look at how best to distribute the vitamins to ensure as many people as possible can take advantage of them. Click Here to Read More about this Pilot Launch.

Most adults could not handle a child's asthma attack

Children and Young People Now has reported that a new survey shows that almost nine out of 10 UK adults have admitted they would not feel completely confident about what to do if a child in their care had an asthma attack. The poll was conducted by YouGov last month. To read more please Click Here.

Moves to improve dementia

FOUR action plans designed to improve services and support for people with dementia in Wales have been published.

The plans will focus on increasing and improving service provision and diagnosing sufferers earlier. The initial focus will be to reduce the time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis, reduce the time people with dementia stay in hospital so that they do not lose the ability to live independently with support and reduce the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic medications in line with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines.

Health Minister Edwina Hart, who launched the plans yesterday, said: “Dementia can have a devastating impact of the health and quality of life of individuals and families.

Thanks to advances in medicines and quality of life, the population is getting older, and this is something to celebrate, but as people get older the risk of dementia increases.”

Figures suggest more than 37,000 people in Wales have dementia in Wales but this is set to rise to almost 50,000 within 20 years.

One in three people over 65 are expected to die with a form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.

Andrew RT Davies, Shadow Health Minister last night said he was disappointed Mrs Hart had not published a singular plan for dementia in Wales. “A number of dementia care providers, sufferers and their families and dementia charities have fed into consultation in anticipation of the plan being brought forward as a priority but will be disappointed yet again.

“The minister must be held to account over her decision to further delay the plan, but it is fair to say that many of the people that fed into the consultation will feel let down by the Assembly Government’s lack of commitment to tackling the ticking time bomb that is dementia within our society.”

But Mrs Hart said: “The action plans show clearly how services must work together to improve services to meet the anticipated increase in demand over the coming years.

“My focus is to ensure we improve patient care. All the plans that are required to deliver these improvements have been completed and I expect the NHS to work with other organisations to deliver the necessary changes.”

Mary Burrows, chief executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, will chair a new adult mental health programme board to oversee the delivery of the action plans across Wales.

Children will eat more fruit 'as long as it looks good'

Making fruit look good holds the key to getting children to eat more of it, a study suggests. In tests, when offered the same amount and types of fruit, children ate far more if it was made fun and attractive, the journal Appetite reports. The researchers, who studied nearly 100 pupils in the Netherlands and Belgium, say parents and schools should follow this example. However, they said food presentations needed to remain innovative. In the study of children aged four to seven, apples, strawberries and seedless grapes were put on offer, but presented in different ways.

'Long-term Harm' of Too Much TV for Toddlers

The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10, researchers warn. The study of 1,300 children by Michigan and Montreal universities found negative effects on older children rose with every hour of toddler TV. Performance at school was worse, while consumption of junk foods was higher. UK experts said parents could allow young children to watch "some" high quality TV.