Lets Talk About Care

Joy Milne talks about what it's like to smell Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer and other diseases.  Her rare hereditary condition also meant she could smell her husband's Parkinson's 12 years before he was diagnosed.    .   

Host Jill Rennie talks to Kari Gerstheimer about why she set up the charity and how the charity is giving free legal advice to  thousands of elderly and disabled people to access social care when they need it and  how the lack of funding and social care workforce shortage is exacerbating the crisis and increasing the workload of the charity.

Host Jill Rennie talks to comedian and author Pope Lonergan about his new book where he shares his raw and honest account of his time working as a care worker, his thoughts on care workers'  wages and retention, the need for society and the government to appreciate care workers and value the work they do, and his care home tour where he performs alongside the residents.

Host Jill Rennie talks to Dr Jane Townson about care workers being denied sick pay because the government has scrapped the infection control fund exacerbating workforce shortages, the problems providers are currently having when they try to recruit overseas care workers and how future technology used through the power of television could be a way to maintain people's health at home.

Antony Loveless and former nurse Claire Hooper say long Covid left them bedbound throughout 2021. 

Host Sue Learner talks to Amanda Woodvine about the importance of respecting the beliefs of older vegetarians and vegans living in care homes, many of whom have dementia and will have forgotten they don't eat meat

Host Jill Rennie talks to Vic Rayner, CEO of the National Care Forum (NCF) about how social care is viewed in the eyes of the government since the pandemic, how the government should have handled the mandatory vaccine policy and how technology will play an integral role in the future of social care.

Host Sue Learner talks to Camille Leavold, managing director of Abbots Care, a home care provider in the south east of England, about how they have been coping during the pandemic, what she thinks of mandatory vaccination for home care workers and her solution for the recruitment crisis.

Traumatic brain injury expert Dr Willie Stewart  says footballs should be sold with a health warning and the global rules of game must change as his study  reveals professional footballers have a 5 times higher risk of getting Alzheimer's than the  public because of headers.   

Host Jill Rennie talks to Stephen Chandler, president of ADASS, about adult social care, his appearance on BBC One's Panorama, the government's response to the pandemic and how care work is still undervalued and misunderstood.

Care home manager Dawn Bunter describes how her mental health was impacted after nine  residents died of Covid . 

Host Jill Rennie talks to Jess Crawford who has found at the age of 29 she has the gene for  frontotemporal dementia, why she chose to take the test, her decision to start making care plans including choosing a care home and how she is helping others by writing a blog.

Host Angeline Albert talks to Care minister Helen Whately about her year in the  job  during the Covid pandemic. The minister discusses care home visits, sleep-in shifts, staff vaccination rates, care worker pay, Covid  deaths of those receiving  care and more.    

Host Jill Rennie talks to Arlene Phillips about her dancing career and the inspirational people she has met such as Freddie Mercury, Ridley Scott and Andrew Lloyd Webber. She also talks about her time on Strictly Come Dancing and her departure from the series, being an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society as well as lockdown and how it has affected people living with dementia and tips for keeping healthy at any age.

Host Jill Rennie talks to Grace Meadows, programme director of Music for Dementia, a charity boosting awareness of the benefits of music and its power to connect and stimulate people with dementia and reduce anxiety. They discuss the charity’s campaign for music to be seen as integral to the care of people with dementia and how care homes can still safely hold singing sessions despite Covid restrictions.

Host Sue Learner talks to Martin Jones, chief executive of Home Instead Senior Care about how caring for his father has shaped the way he leads the UK's biggest home care provider. He reveals how Home Instead Senior Care has been coping during the pandemic and his vision for home care.

Host Angeline Albert talks to care home manager Mark Topps , who caught COVID-19 and says care homes are struggling to get enough free PPE each day because of restrictions placed on them by the government.

Hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to Karolina Gerlich, executive director of the Care Workers Charity (CWC) about her phenomenal achievement in fundraising two million pounds for care workers during the pandemic and the new points-based immigration system that will prevent foreign care workers coming to the UK to work. She also gives the government a CQC-style rating on how they performed during the COVID-19 crisis when care homes and home care were very much on the front line and talks about her battle to improve the pay and status of care workers.

Why should care homes and home care agencies champion LGBT+ rights?Ramses Underhill-Smith is the MD of the UK's first LGBT+ home care firm. He shares his own personal insight into why it matters. Alice Wallace, director of charity Opening Doors London says every care setting should get Pride In Care accreditation.

Care worker Anugwom Goodluck battled to protect care home residents from COVID-19 but now faces deportation to Nigeria. He must leave the country by 31 August. In this podcast, he talks about fleeing from terrorists and why he fears his life is at risk.

What's life's like for a care home in lockdown? Care worker Jack Johnson, 91-year-old resident Doreen Empson & Danielle Bullent manager at Laurel Lodge care home talk to host Angeline Albert about making residents laugh out loud in lockdown. Care home staff have taken on different jobs since lockdown with hair-modelling by Jack, baton-twirling from Danielle and new activities like the penpal scheme for care homes which has given nonagenarian Doreen a new admirer.

Host Angeline Albert talks to Anita Astle, the managing director of Wren Hall Nursing Home in Nottingham, where 13 residents died. The care home owner talks candidly about government failures including PPE shortages, no testing for residents who died at her care home and "poor and conflicting" guidance. She also knows what it's like to catch the coronavirus and says it was the community that gave her the help and "morale boost" that kept her and her staff going.

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to Martin Green, chief executive of Care England about his passion for the care sector which is nearly as strong as his passion for Newcastle as well as his sense of injustice and his desire to improve people's lives and make the world a better place.

Host Angeline Albert talks to Care minister Caroline Dinenage about her husband’s death threats, government thinking on social care reform and her encounters with the Kray twins. The minister talks about why a long term solution for social care hasn't arrived and says she can't promise a plan will arrive by this summer.

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to TV broadcaster and Classic FM presenter John Suchet and his wife Nula about how dementia affected them individually and as a couple, how they coped putting their soul mates into a care home, their feelings of guilt, and the stress of looking after a loved one with dementia.

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to Norma Howard, who at the age of 91 became the UK’s oldest female wing-walker. If that is not exhausting enough, Norma has ridden the wall of death, swum the equivalent of the English Channel and is an experienced pilot.

Host Angeline Albert talks to 106-year-old Freda Hodgson and Dorothy Gayler, aged 101, two of the nine members of what has been dubbed The 100+ Club as well as care staff at Whiteley Village.

Host Angeline Albert talks to broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen about loneliness, the right to die, ageism, climate change and care robots

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to Wendy Mitchell, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of 58. Since her diagnosis, she has written a bestselling memoir called ‘Somebody I Used to Know’ and hopes that by spreading awareness she can help people to understand what it is like living with dementia.

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner talk to Gyles Brandreth about his new book ‘Dancing by the Light of the Moon’ where he not only discusses his passion for poetry but how learning poetry can be good for all and help delay the onset of dementia.

Co-hosts Jill Rennie and Sue Learner introduce listeners to the Let’s Talk About Care podcast revealing how they became involved in the world of care.