Woman found guilty of slavery after keeping vulnerable pensioner captive in her home

A woman has been found guilty of slavery offences after stealing a vulnerable pensioner's money and keeping her captive in her home.

Maria Miller, 64, subjected the woman to a seven-year ordeal after encouraging her to come and live with her in Chingford, northeast London.

Miller manipulated the pensioner, now aged 74, into performing chores around the house and in a charity shop she ran.

On some occasions she locked the pensioner out of the home, leaving her to go to the toilet in the garden, sleep outside in the shed and eat cat and dog food when she got hungry.

Miller also made the woman carry out tasks in exchange for meals, and sometimes left her to go without food for days.

The pensioner, who has learning difficulties and has not been named, lost a significant amount of weight. Miller refused to allow her access to a mobile phone, money or her own pension.

Miller subjected the victim to assaults and sometimes made her sleep on the floor. She also spent the pensioner's benefits on expensive designer clothes, a new car and holidays.

Miller, who ran a cat orphanage, befriended the woman after she began volunteering there. The victim did not realise she was being ill-treated for some years.

She said she put up with it because she enjoyed working with the animals at the charity shelter. The alarm was raised with social services more than seven years later when the victim ran away from the home for the third time and sought help from a friend

Miller was convicted of two counts of holding another in slavery or servitude and one count of theft at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday 21 June and will be sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 31 July.

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community. Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/

 

'Our life savings are spent on care that should be free'

Tell your Vulnerable Loved Ones About Continuing Healthcare(CHC)

Thousands of vulnerable patients in England are missing out on NHS funding for care that they are legally entitled to, it is being claimed. Some families say they have spent nearly all their life savings on filling the gaps.

When 83-year-old Joyce Bryant became ill two years ago with viral encephalitis, it was a tipping point. The illness left her with a substantial brain injury and unable to care for herself.

"Her behaviour was just manic," says her daughter Lyn Timothy. "She was banging on windows. She was hitting out at my dad, pulling plugs out of the sockets in the hospital ward."

The family decided additional support was needed to enable Joyce to stay at home with her husband and applied for funding from NHS continuing healthcare (CHC).

CHC covers the cost of social care for people with complex medical conditions, if the health problem is deemed the main reason they require such help. It exists in a similar form in Wales and Northern Ireland, where it is delivered by health boards. Scotland has different care arrangements called Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care.

But despite clinical documents and videos showing Joyce's "unpredictable behaviour" - those who apply are judged according to national guidelines - the family's local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) found her needs did not meet its criteria.

"They said her behaviour was not unpredictable. It could be anticipated," Lyn says, adding she is unable to understand its rationale.

Her mother is now confined to bed and has been placed on an end-of-life care register by her GP due to a deterioration in her health.

Every year about 160,000 applications are made for continuing healthcare, costing the NHS around £3bn.

The system has been deemed a "national scandal" by Continuing Healthcare Alliance as it is denying many people the free healthcare they are entitled to. Some are dying before they get the care they need or are forced to sell their homes to pay for care that should be free.

In other cases people did not know about the existence of the funding, as they had not been told about it, or had difficulties "navigating the complexities of the system"

 

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community. Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/

 

Care Support Alliance - Getting the right care makes all the difference

Campaigning for the care we need

No one deserves to suffer in silence when they are denied the basic care to help them with their illness or condition. Yet at least 1.4 million people, that’s larger than the population of Birmingham, are not getting the care they need. That’s help with getting dressed, or help with meals, or it can be the support to go to work or live independently.

Please help end the silence and join us in telling the new Government why good care is so important!!!!

Please click on the link below to fill the form out:-

https://careandsupportalliance.e-activist.com/page/43568/data/1?locale=en-GB 

 

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community. Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/

Measles and mumps outbreak prompts vaccination calls

Mumps cases in England have increased almost three-fold in the first three months of this year.

Public Health England figures show that there were 795 cases in the first three months of this year, compared to 275 during the same period last year.

There have been 3,789 cases of measles across the continent during the first three months of this year according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The highest numbers have been in Romania, France, Poland and Lithuania.

PHE's head of immunisation Dr Mary Ramsay warned that with measles outbreaks across parts of Europe families should make sure they are vaccinated before they travel.

The MMR vaccine is given on the NHS to babies, usually within a month of their first birthday. A second injection of the vaccine is given before starting school, usually at three years and four months.

The vaccine is also available to all adults and children who are not up to date with their two doses.

One dose of the MMR vaccine is about 90-95% effective at preventing measles, rising to around 99% after the second.

 

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community.

Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/

“I have the poo cancer... There's nothing pink about my cancer, it's just brown!” - Deborah James

Deborah James was 35 when she found out that she had stage 4 bowel cancer.

While undergoing treatment, she has written and spoken out about the need for people to be aware of the symptoms of bowel cancer and why we need to pay more attention to our poo.

She has a column in The Sun newspaper and is one of the hosts of the award-winning BBC Radio 5 live podcast about cancer, You, Me and the Big C.

Watch the video to hear how Deborah discovered her cancer, and the signs we should all look out for.

 

 

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community.

Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/

Sepsis - the warning signs

Every year more than 50,000 people die after contracting sepsis. Many thousands more are left with disabilities and life-changing consequences.

Symptoms include:

Symptoms in young children include:

With early diagnosis and the correct treatment, normally antibiotics, most people make a full recovery.

 

Leymar Healthcare provide Homecare Services in Ashfield and 24 Hour Live in Care in the UK to vulnerable adults in their community.

Please contact our office on 01623 360 193 or email us at info@leymarltd.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can use our Contact Form on our website:- https://leymarhealthcare.co.uk/contact us/