‘I can’t cope’ wrote boy, 14, who died in custody

‘I can’t cope” wrote boy, 14, who died in custody
The mother of the youngest person to die behind bars in Britain wept yesterday as she told an inquest about the final months of her son’s life.Adam Rickwood was 14 when he was found hanged in his room at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in Co Durham in August 2004. The teenager was on remand at the unit, 150 miles from his home in Burnley, Lancashire.
Source:-The Times, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 22

Social care gets first course of treatment
An action plan for the 21st century gives a disjointed sector an imaginative rethink.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 3

Doctors seek to cure blind patients by injecting eye with genes
A British hospital has made the world’s first attempt to treat blindness with a revolutionary gene therapy.
Source:-The Times, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 24

Return of the council house
Shelter has welcomed indications yesterday that the government will increase council house building by making it easier for local authorities to use spare land and retain rent money to construct new builds.
Director Adam Sampson said the commitments, from housing minister Yvette Cooper, would got some way towards meeting the charity’s call for an extra 60,000 social homes to be built over the next three years.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 11

Smoke on the brain
A lifetime’s exposure to other people’s tobacco smoke increases the risk of developing dementia, a medical conference in Boston, Massachusetts, was told yesterday.
A team from the University of California in Berkeley followed 3,602 people, aged 65 or over, for six years. Just under 500 reported that they had been exposed to secondhand smoke for long periods, averaging 28 years.Thaddeus Haight and his team found that those exposed to smoke were 30 per cent likelier to get dementia.
Source:-The Times, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 24

Asylum seekers: booking a ticket to success
A voluntary scheme at local libraries is offering refugees and asylum seekers a new lease of life.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 7

Asylum care fails children
Some 3,000 children who arrive in the UK every year seeking asylum can end up leading isolated lives due to the patchy nature of services provided by local authorities, says a report from New Philanthropy Capital.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 10

The art of courage
The paintings of a 19-year-old woman who cannot use her arms and legs will go under the hammer at Christie’s auction house today. Leanne Beetham, who paints with her mouth, is the youngest artist in the auction, which is being held to raise funds for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation for endangered wild animals.
Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday 2 May 2007  page 21

Elderly must pay 70% more for hospital TV
A firm providing bedside televisions for hospitals has scrapped a discount rate for watching TV for the over-65s, meaning their daily bills will rise by 70%. Patientline’s rates for pensioners will increase from £1.70 to the standard rate of £2.90 in a move criticised by the Patients’ Association as the “last straw”.
Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday 2 May 2007, page 31

Scottish news

No social care news today.

Welsh news

Asbo gran appeals
An elderly lady once described as “the original neighbour from hell” will appeal against her jail sentence today. Dorothy Evans, 81, from Abergavenny, South Wales, was sentenced to six months in jail in April for harassment and six breaches of an antisocial behaviour order. Her appeal is being heard at the High Court in London.
Source:-icWales, Wednesday 2 May, 2007

Nurseries ‘losing popularity’
Increasing numbers of parents are choosing to care for their children themselves rather than send them to nurseries new research has found. The study, carried out by market analyst Laing and Buisson, shows that 19.5 per cent of nursery places in Wales are vacant.
Source:- South Wales Echo, Wednesday 2 May 2007