Cash boost to help elderly
ELDERLY people are to get more sheltered housing thanks to a £1million cash boost.Suffolk County Council has announced £1.3million extra spending in services for vulnerable elderly people.
ELDERLY people are to get more sheltered housing thanks to a £1million cash boost.
Suffolk County Council has announced £1.3million extra spending in services for vulnerable elderly people.
The authority unveiled its plans to invest the extra money this year to provide more of what it calls 'very sheltered housing', which allows elderly people to live independently while accessing 24-hour personal care.
It will also be used to buy extra beds in residential homes for older people.
The council revealed the investment is part of a total of £3.1million in extra spending on older people in Suffolk identified in its 2005/2006 budget.
The remainder of the money is to be spent on helping older people remain in their own homes.
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Yesterday the Evening Star revealed how the £4million Bluebird Lodge scheme at Ravenswood would actually leave two less beds than before in the county as St Edmunds Lodge is to close its Constitution Hill premises to move in there along with 15 people from Monmouth Court.
However the council will now spend £250,000 on three very sheltered housing schemes (VHHs) at Stowupland, Ixworth and Exning.
All three will include provision of specialist care for people with dementia.
The Stowupland scheme will include 32 one and two-bedroom flats, with two flats for respite care for younger people with dementia and two flats for people with learning disabilities and dementia.
The project has resulted from a partnership between Suffolk County Council, Mid-Suffolk District Council and Orwell Housing Association.
Another £585,000 is to be spent on providing 60 beds in residential homes for older people with Alzheimers disease or dementia.
The extra places will add to 20 new beds in Ipswich for people with dementia and 12 beds already upgraded from existing places for older people at Suffolk County Council's home at Wickham Market and 10 in Needham Market.
Councillor Terry Green, who has responsibility in the council for care for older people, said: "The council is extremely proud of our very sheltered housing schemes.
"Suffolk is a national leader both by building many new schemes, and in the quality and innovative ways of funding and managing these.
"Delivering very sheltered housing has allowed us to buy fewer residential places, the savings from which we are now ploughing back into more intensive care for older people. This investment will certainly help us to further reduce the number of people delayed unnecessarily in hospital."
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