Regional Representative Volunteers Recruitment
This year will add five more locations to our map of Regional Representatives. The
areas within England targeted this year are: South and West Yorkshire, Liverpool
and Cheshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, London and Sussex. If you live in one of these
areas and would like to apply for the volunteer position please contact Alina on
01653604363 or email Alina
Medical Student Essay Prize
Submission Deadline: 1st October 2011
Prize: £500
Open to: The Encephalitis Society would like to invite UK medical school students
undergraduate and postgraduate level interested in Encephalitis to participate in
the Medical Student Essay Prize.
A prize of £500 will be awarded for the best medical student essay on a topic relevant
to Encephalitis. The winner will also be invited to give a presentation at one of
the Society’s meetings.
Criteria: The applicant should be a medical student in a recognised UK Medical School
on 1st October 2011. The essay must be on any aspect of Encephalitis. The essay
should be around 3000 words excluding references. Entries will be judged on style,
impact of subject and originality. The applicants should also provide a current
Curriculum Vitae.
Deadline: Submissions are due in electronic Word format by 1st October 2011 for
the attention of Ava Easton. Hard copy will not be accepted.
Encephalitis member Rhys Jones, Gold Young Ambassador for Sport in Wales, promotes 2012 Paralympics.
Read more . . .
Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability
Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families has launched a Green
Paper on special educational needs and disability which makes wide ranging proposals
to respond to the frustrations of children and young people, their families and
the professionals who work with them. The proposals will be consulted on until 30
June.
Consultation responses can be completed online at
www.education.gov.uk/consultations or
emailed to send.greenpaper@education.gsi.gov.uk
Alternatively you can send them to us by emailing
Alina by 1st June 2011. We will include them in the
Society’s response to the Consultation.
Financial problems and Benefits
Are you concerned that the new benefit reforms will result in the loss of your income?
The Disability Benefits Consortium is working on your behalf and provides a way
of inputting your concerns by taking part in online surveys and petitions.
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) is a national coalition of over 30 different
charities and other organisations committed to working towards a fair benefits system.
Using their combined knowledge, experience and direct contact with disabled individuals
and carers, they seek to ensure Government policy reflects and meets the needs of
all disabled people.
The consortium have made representations to the Government on a number of issues
including
- Work Capacity Assessment
- Removal of DLA mobility component from people living in residential care
- Disability Living Allowance reform
The full reports can be viewed on their web site www.disabilityalliance.org www.disabilityalliance.org
You can contribute to their benefits survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/dbcsurvey
In partnership with Contact a Family and the Royal National Institute for Blind
People (RNIB), Citizens Advice is currently seeking information about the experiences
of disabled people and their carers who have had financial difficulties.
If you are disabled, or there is someone in your household who is disabled, and
you have had difficulties paying bills or are in debt, they would like to hear from
you.
If you are in this situation, they would be very grateful if you could spend a short
time answering a few simple questions. There are eleven questions altogether.
Survey
The Cross Border Care
On 19 January 2011 the European Parliament opened the way for residents to seek
health care anywhere in the European Union. The Cross- border Health Care Directive,
penned in 2008 should become effective in 2013. The most obvious beneficiaries will
be patients seeking advanced treatments, those living along borders where the nearest
hospital is across the line, or those who work in one country but want to get treatment
near family members in another country.
The Running Mad Professor, alias Tom Solomon, 
the Chair of the Society's Professional
Advisory Panel, has just run the 2010 Virgin London Marathon
Tom completed the run in Four Hours, Twenty One Minutes and Nine Seconds – The Guinness
World Record for the Fastest Marathon Dressed as a Doctor. Tom said, "With nearly
nine minutes to spare, I don’t know why I was rushing! ..."
As a result he was able to promote the society in the press and on the One Show.
Congratulations and thank you!
Read more . . .
Royal College of General Practitioners launches UK-wide Manifesto for Social Care
RCGP has published this week its UK-wide Manifesto outlining some recommendation for the future of high quality care for patients.
This document makes proposals such as longer consultation times and longer GP training but also recommendations regarding smoking and alcohol misuse.
If you would like to read more about it, please follow the link below
Read more . . .
CQC publishes the state of health care and adult social care
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. CQC published its first annual report to Parliament on the state of health care & adult social care in England.
This report sets out how well health care and social care services in England performed in 2009 and the improvements leading up to 2009.
If you would like to read a summary of this report please follow the link Report Summary
NHS Constitution now backed by Law
Read more . . .
Last modified: February 2011