Shameful Neglect Of Old Folk

The Connection Between Antidepressants, Suicide And Violence.
I see that even the slow learners in the media are at last picking up on the mountains of reputable research which show that ‘antidepressants’ are vastly over-prescribed even on their own terms, often have unpleasant side effects, and may not actually be any more effective against ‘depression’ than sugar pills.
So here’s a new challenge for the slow learners.
I cannot see how anyone can oppose it.
Can we please now have a simple rule for all coroners, magistrates and judges?
Wherever someone has taken his own life, or wherever someone is accused of taking someone else’s life, or of an act of dangerous violence, the police, doctors and pathologists involved should be required to discover whether that person has ever been a user of mind-altering drugs, whether legally prescribed, or illegal.
I believe that if this question is asked, it will become plain that there is a frightening correlation between such drugs and such acts.
Then, at last, we can do something.
( Peter Hitchens, 04.05.2014 )

The Shameful Neglect Of The Elderly.
Few Tory policies are as shameful as the callous neglect of elderly and vulnerable people.
When frail people are left unfed, unwashed and unloved by poisonous spending cuts it turns austerity into a crime against humanity.
By slashing upwards of £1billion from the care budget, the Conservatives reveal their colours as an uncaring nasty party with an ideological obsession to shrink the state at all costs.
The unwashed and the neglected didn’t create the deficit – yet they are being punished while the greedy bankers who did crash the economy enjoy a huge tax cut gifted to them by the Tories.
The best test of how civilised any country is has to be how it treats the most vulnerable of its citizens.
On that score this regime is failing miserably.
The people most entitled to decent public services and compassion are those who are hurting the most.
Politics is about priorities and the Tories are contemptible for punishing the weakest while championing the richest.
( Daily Mirror, 21.01.2015 )

A Damning, Disturbing Report By Age UK.
Age UK found the number of over-65s receiving care fell nearly 30% from 1,230.625 under Labour to 849,280 now.
The amount of day care places plunged 67% from 178,700 to 59,125 and numbers getting meals on wheels fell 63.7% from 81,460 to 29,569.
Half of the one million elderly people who struggled to wash or bathe and a third of the 350,000 who had difficulty getting to the toilet got no help.
Of the 570,000 people who struggled to get out of bed on their own, a third do not receive any support.
Two-thirds of the 250,000 people who had trouble feeding themselves were also left in the lurch.
Age UKs Caroline Abrahams said, ‘Hundreds of thousands of older people who need social care are being left high and dry. Our state-funded social care system is in calamitous, quite rapid decline’.
( Jason Beattie, 21.01.2015 )

Dogs Can Sniff-Out Killer Bugs.
Trained sniffer dogs could soon be patrolling hospital wards to seek out traces of infection.
It is hoped the hounds will provide an early-warning system for bugs such as C.diff.
In a recent trial, a beagle called Cliff took just ten minutes to work his way down a ward of 30 patients – and sniffed out 12 out of 14 cases of C.diff in one hospital.
The tests have shown that trained beagles may be able to sniff out a dangerous hospital infection more quickly than a laboratory can produce results.
C.diff is an infection of the colon caused by a bacterium, Clostridium difficile.
( Roger Dobson, 12.10.2014 )

Dubious, Risky Tablets.
It’s sad to learn that starlings are suffering from antidepressants, apparently because they eat sewage-farm worms that have ingested the drugs from human waste.
But isn’t it rather more important that so many people are still being persuaded to take these dubious, risky tablets – increasingly linked with inexplicable suicide?
( Peter Hitchens, 02.11.2014 )

Three Vodkas In A Glass Of Wine.
A large glass of wine is potentially as harmful as having three single vodkas.
Issuing the warning, Public Health England chief Duncan Selbie added, ‘People have no idea how much they are drinking’.
A 250ml glass of wine has three units of alcohol.
( Daily Mirror, 03.12.2014 )

Urgent Operations Cancelled.
Thousands of patients are having operations cancelled, including those needing ‘urgent’ surgery to save their lives, limbs or organs.
In the most comprehensive picture yet of the crisis engulfing the NHS, today’s shock figures show a soaring number of sick people being turned away as over-stretched hospitals struggle for beds.
So far this winter, 14,731 patients have ‘suffered the distress’ of having elective operations called off at the last minute.
That is up 39% on the same period, November 3 to January 11, in 2013/14.
More worryingly, the number of ‘urgent’ operations being shelved by hospital bosses has also rocketed to 752, a 31% rise.
It means 210 patients needing elective surgery and 11 requiring urgent operations are turned away every day, according to the NHS England figures.
( Andrew Gregory, 23.01.2015 )

Blaming A Rising Population Is Just A Smokescreen.
The Conservative-dominated Government can no longer evade responsibility for the crisis in England’s hospital Accident and Emergency Units.
The increase in patients seeking treatment is rising almost ten times faster under the Tories than when Labour was in office.
That is largely due to the disastrous closures of NHS Walk-In centres and cuts to GP services which make it difficult to get appointments.
Both measures were imposed by the Conservatives – blaming a rising population is just a smokescreen.
( Daily Mirror, 21.01.2015 )

Anxiety And Depression.
Having anxiety and depression is like being scared and tired at the same time.
It’s the fear of failure but no urge to be productive.
It’s wanting friends but hate socialising.
It’s wanting to be alone but not wanting to be lonely.
It’s caring about everything then caring about nothing.
It’s feeling everything at once then feeling paralysingly numb.

Cannabis Linked To Attempted Suicide.
A new study shows that teenagers who smoke cannabis are 60% less likely to finish school or get a degree, compared with those who never touch it.
Daily users of the drug are also seven times more likely to attempt suicide than non-users.
These important facts could explain several worrying trends in our country.
Yet the report was barely mentioned by most media – especially those who relentlessly plug irresponsible and wicked campaigns to destroy what’s left of our drug laws.
( Peter Hitchens, 14.09.2014 )