With an estimated 1.3 million people over 65 suffering from malnutrition¹, undernourishment is a widespread problem in the UK and one that costs the health and social care system over £19.6 billion each year². This article helps people to identify malnutrition and highlights ways to prevent it.

The world is facing a mental health crisis. More and more countries are struggling to deal with an ever-increasing wave of anxiety, depression and stress (to name but a few conditions). This epidemic is thought to be so severe that experts predict the bill to tackle the problem could hit £12 trillion by the year 2030. The need to combat negative mental health has never been greater.

As we grow older we often think to take more care of our physical health rather than both our physical and mental health. Retirement, staying healthy and active, finances, mobility and independence can all effect our mental well-being. There may also be the worry of our loved ones’ health, being widowed or divorced, gaining a physical disability, illness or fear of loneliness and isolation when living on your own. This article explores some of the mental health challenges in later life and offers advice for keeping a healthy mind.

Experienced Mental Health Nurse Natalie tells us about her role and why she loves her job.

A recent BBC investigation has released a shocking statistic that fraudsters scammed nearly 49,000 older people (aged 60 and over) across the UK in the past year, the equivalent to almost six reports every hour. Perhaps most pertinent, is the fact that 1,140 of those victims were aged over 90 and 13 were over 100. This article provides guidance for homecare workers on spotting potential fraudulent activity within a service user's home.

Here at Medacs Healthcare, we like to take the time to understand our care workers - what motivates them, their challenges and their reasons for getting in to care. In this article we interview Karline Jones, a care worker in South East London, to find out why she loves providing care.

The typical day of a care worker is very diverse, with no two care packages the same. To highlight the differences between care requirements and to show how a care worker must adapt to each service user, we’ve interviewed Francesca Papantoniou, a care worker of seven years.

When we grow older, our bodies become less proficient at adapting to hot or cold weather. Not being able to adjust so efficiently can lead to health problems, sometimes serious, which is why it’s so important to take care of those who are more vulnerable during colder climates. This article offers homecare workers some top tips to ensure that they keep service users safe, warm and away from ill health. 

As we get older, weaker and start to lose contact with those that are close to us, we depend more on social interaction to prevent loneliness. This article highlights why communication is so important in homecare and suggests ways in which homecare workers can aid the prevention of isolation.

In 2009, Lindsay joined the Medacs Healthcare, Homecare team in Manchester where she works as a stabilise and make safe (SAMS) care worker. Now, following nine years’ of service within the team, we caught up with Lindsay to ask her about the most rewarding and challenging parts of the job.