Who Are We

Contact the Elderly is a national charity that changes the lives of lonely people over 75.

What We Do

One Sunday afternoon a month, each local group meets up for tea, cake and company.  Our hosts take it in turns to welcome you and the rest of the group into their homes for a few hours. and our drivers always make sure you get home safely.  This is a free service.

Laughter and Friendship

We keep groups small, so everyone can get to know each other, and you’ll spend the afternoons laughing and enjoying each others’ stories.

A Lasting Difference

Contact the Elderly offers a lifeline of friendship to people over 75.  Are you living along, isolated from family and friends and too frail to leave the house by yourself?  Then regular afternoons or conversation and laughter could be just what you need.

Join Us

If you would like to join a Contact the Elderly group, or you know someone who might, please call us on

0800 716 543

for information about groups in your area.

Here is some information on a Disability Forum in the Swansea area. As mentioned each Local Authority can help if you wish to find out about meetings where you live. If you need any more information please let Liz Irvine know and we will find out what we can.

Swansea Disability Forum is an umbrella body made up of: disabled people, disability groups, voluntary organisations and carers of disabled people.

The Forum:
• Meets bi-monthly
• Raises and acts on disability issues – both on a local and national level
• Provides a representative voice for disabled people and disability groups in Swansea
• Provides members with the opportunity to network

Dates of the next few meetings are:

• 5th September 1pm at Scout and Guide HQ Bryn Road Brynmill, Swansea

• 7th November 1pm at Scout and Guide HQ Bryn Road Brynmill, Swansea

If you wish to attend meetings, have questions or want further information please contact:
Pablo Rees, Secretary Swansea Disability Forum

Mobile No. 07423 063941 – Or email: disability.forum@hotmail.co.uk

Swansea Network 50+ have organised a day to mark UK Day for Older People.  There is a coffee morning with some exhibitors, entertainment, craft workshops and activities.  Also free electric blanket testing (until 2.00pm)

Monday 3 October 2011 – Grand Theatre Studio, Swansea – 10.00 am – 12.30 pm

With the strategic objective of:

"…older people having an effective voice on a wide range of participative and planning issues…"

Aims

· Encourage the involvement & participation of people aged 50+

· Give people aged 50+ a strengthened voice in the City & County of Swansea

· Influence policy & planning services

Methods

· Publications

o Network 50+ News (7 so far)

o Transport Guides to Hospitals

o Safety Booklet (with Safer Swansea Partnership)

o Summaries of documents for discussions and forums

· Consultation Meetings on Plans and Strategies from

o City and County of Swansea

o Welsh Assembly Government

o UK Government

o Health Bodies

· Community Plan Forums

o Lifelong Learning

o Prosperity

o The Environment

o Safety in the Home and Community

o Health, Social Care and Well-Being

· Life Begins @ 50+ Events in partnership with Age Concern, Swansea Local Health Board, Swansea NHS Trust, Swansea Health Alliance and the Council

Each event is unique, but you will find

o Demonstrations

o Advice

o Entertainment

o Free Health Checks

Membership of the Network is free to any resident of the City and County of Swansea who is aged 50+. The Network also keeps a database of groups and organisations whose members are wholly or predominantly aged 50+.

If you would like further information on any of the above, or the Network itself please contact Ann Williams on 01792 636703 or email 50plus@swansea.gov.uk

This type of Network is also available in other counties in Wales and if you would like to find out more about it in your area search for your Local Authority web site where you will find more information.

We have today done our Spring Draw to thank everyone who is helping us with the AS Research Study at Swansea University and the winner was Matt Wilson from Barry who won £40 worth of Tesco Vouchers.  Well done Matt spend them wisely.

10 March 2011

We would like to invite people who have been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and their families and friends to an open information day about Ankylosing Spondylitis in the Village Hotel, Swansea, SA1 on Thursday 10 March 2011 from 3.00 – 6.00 pm.   There will be short presentations by local healthcare professionals  and researchers in AS, a question and answer session, plus opportunity for discussions over free refreshments and buffet.

For further information and to book yourself a FREE place please contact Liz Irvine on 01792 295621 or email e.m.irvine@swansea.ac.uk

Golimumab (a new anti-TNF) was studied in a multi-centre, randomized, placebo-controlled study. People were randomly assigned 50 or 100 mg of golimumab or placebo every 4 weeks. Sleep disturbance was assessed at baseline, week 14 and week 24. Patients who received golimumab anti-TNF showed significantly great improvement in total back pain, night back pain and quality of life. The conclusion was that patients with active AS showed significant sleep disturbance due to underlying pain. However, treatment with subcutaneous golimumab every 4 weeks significantly reduced sleep disturbance and improved health related quality of life.

Deodhar A, Braun et al. Golimumab reduces sleep disturbance in patients with active ankylosing spondylitis: results from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial.  Arthritis Care Res 2010 [Epub ahead of print]

A register of 842 people with AS using anti-TNF in Demark was used to examine: (1) disease activity, (2) clinical response to anti-TNF, (3) duration of treatment with anti-TNF and (4) the type of people who stay on long term use of anti-TNF treatment.

Findings: Within six months most patients (6 in 10) achieved a clinical response or had a marked reduction in the activity of their disease (pain, stiffness, tenderness etc). 7 in 10 people remained on anti-TNF for at least 1 year, and 6 in 10 for at least 2 years, but by 4 years only half of the people were still using anti-TNF. The people who were more likely to stay on anti-TNF were men, those with high levels of inflammation and those with lower levels of fatigue. In addition, people who had high levels of inflammation, good function and who were a younger age responded better to anti-TNF (i.e had the most improvement) compared to older people with poor function and less active inflammation (but perhaps more existing damage).

Conclusion: Anti-TNF gives a rapid and sustained benefit in terms of reducing disease activity. People who benefit most and who stay on anti-TNF were; the younger men with active inflammatory disease, low levels of fatigue and good function. Therefore, those people likely to come off anti-TNF are older, female with high levels of fatigue and less active inflammation.

Reference: Glintborg B, Ostergaard M, et al..Predictors of treatment response and drug continuation in 842 patients with ankylosing spondylitis treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor: results from 8 years’ surveillance in the Danish nationwide DANBIO registry. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 May 28. [Epub ahead of print]

12 people with AS, 8 women and 4 men aged 30 – 59 who had lived with AS for between 6 months to 36 years participated in interviews. They were asked to describe their daily life during good and bad days of AS, and to give examples of every situation where they experienced fatigue and of what they did to recover. 7 respondents were in full time and 2 in part time employment and 3 were disability pensioners.

There were 2 types of fatigue identified: 1. Manageable tiredness fatigue, which indicates to the respondent to rest or slow down and 2. illness related fatigue which was accompanied by unbearable pain, severe stiffness and heaviness to the body, which was considered a sign of the onset of a flare up.

With comprehensible, manageable life-strain-related fatigue some respondents felt AS makes life harder. This meant that daily life had become more of a struggle because they always had to take AS into account. In addition to constantly having to take their illness into account they felt that they were expected to find the time and energy to follow advice on treatment and exercise. Some of them felt guilty because they did not manage this. People who felt guilty were usually in employment and had no energy to spare for exercise. Others said that they had disciplined themselves and that they exercised regularly and kept fit. These individuals had often played sport before their illness and for them to exercise was enjoyable leisure activity that gave them new energy. Life-strain-related tiredness is a sign of overload. All respondents said they had to manage their energy and slow down so as to prevent overstrain. They used tiredness as a signal that their “batteries were running down” and that they had to “recharge them” or “take time out” to regain their strength. Thus tiredness protected them from over-exertion.

Illness related fatigue was unfamiliar and unmanageable illness-related fatigue. This give respondents feelings of exhaustion and helplessness. They had become more or less accustomed to the fact that preventing and alleviating stiffness required a good deal of effort and that their sleep patterns had changed. The pain was experienced locally or even throughout the whole body. Illness-related fatigue is a sign of sickness. This form of fatigue was associated with the onset or the flare-up of inflammation.

The two different categories of fatigue may call for different therapeutic approaches. Life-strain-related tiredness has a positive aspect in that it can protect against overstrain and can be relieved by self-management strategies and regulated by modifying everyday life strain. Moreover it is likely that more life strain can be endured if physical fitness is improved. In contrast, illness-related fatigue seems not to serve any purpose in guiding everyday life regulation. The present findings suggest that illness-related fatigue needs a medical therapeutic approach aimed to modify disease processes.

(Study from Austria)

Fifty-six people with AS and 48 people who did not have AS were asked to complete a questionnaire about their body and their image of their body. The people with AS were also asked about pain and their ability to do everyday tasks (function).

The people with AS (especially the women) had more worries about physically not looking right (physical ‘deficits’) and the people with milder AS had more insecurity about their physical ‘deficits’ compared to the more severely affected people. The people with AS considered themselves less attractive than those without AS.

However, people with AS reported better physical vitality than those without AS. This might be because they were carrying out regular physical activity and doing more exercise. There were no differences between the those with AS and those without in terms of sexual problems.

People with AS had normal well-being scores, so general well-being was the same for those without AS.

CONCLUSIONS: Medical practitioners should consider  problems in body image for people with AS and where a problem is identified, psychological and physical  therapy should be offered.

Reference: Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2010 May 11. Body image in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Guenther V, Locher E, Falkenbach A, Gutweniger S, Kopp M, Pfaffenberger N, Stuerz K, Mur E. Centre of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Department of General and Social Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.