04/04/2014 BBC Channel Islands News

Good evening. More money and more staff have been pledged to help

Jersey's growing number of dementia patients. ?500,000 has been set

aside for services this year and 16 new mental health professionals are

being trained. The number of islanders with dementia is set to

double in less than 30 years to about 3000. Patients and their

carers say the extra resources have been a long time coming. Jen Smith

reports. Janet Carlin cared for her dad until he was too ill to stay at

home. For four and a half years she nursed him as dementia took hold.

She says one of the worst things was watching her dad lose control. He

was falling over all the time, especially at night when he got out

of bed. If I left the room, he would panic, so he would follow me because

he did not know what was going on. That was 24 hours a day, constant

care. This graphic compares a healthy brain with one showing signs

of dementia. It's a global problem and one that's particularly apparent

in Jersey. Dementia is a term that refers to a number of conditions.

They are all categorised by a progressive decline in cognitive

functions. This is most often memory, but it can be other things,

for example language or orientation in space. The island's health

department says it's making dealing with dementia a priority due to the

aging population. Janet hopes carers as well as patients will be

considered. The people that helped me look after him were extremely

good but I know they were very stretched. It must put a lot of

strain on the people that care for the carers and people with dementia

if they are under that kind of pressure. Half a million pounds has

been set aside to improve services and fund more support. The race is

on to make sure we're ready. So what difference will patients and

their families see from this extra investment? Ian Dyer is the director

of services for older people in Jersey. The difference they are

going to see if there will be more people to support them and more

people with specialist skills working with people with dementia.

More psychiatry, more psychology, more nursing, more social work, more

occupational therapy. We will also employ a bilingual caseworker,

someone who can work directly with the Portuguese community and the

ageing population within the Portuguese community. We are

hopefully starting to make the appointments in September or October

this year. The Latvian Ambassador to the UK

says Guernsey needs to do more to improve the lives of Latvian people

working in the island. Andris Teikmanis is in the bailiwick this

week. He says both governments need to work together to improve pensions

and work permits for Latvians in Guernsey.

A trade union leader claims the States of Guernsey made guarantees

that Sure's pension arrangements wouldn't change when it was sold off

in 2002. That's the view of Martyn Priaulx from the Prospect union

after the telecoms company decided to end its defined benefit pension

scheme. Mr Priaulx says assurances were made to telecom staff about

their pensions. If we go back ten or 12 years, we were given a lot of

guarantees from the senior states people at the time that everything

would continue in a shadow scheme exactly the same as we had before

and that was one of the big issues at the time with the take`over.

It's a year this weekend since Guernsey woman Sarah Groves was

murdered on a houseboat while travelling in India. Dutchman

Richard de Witt is accused of her murder and has been on trial for

months. He denies all charges. Sarah's father Vic told the BBC the

family is still struggling to heal. It is coming up to one year since

Sarah was killed. How has the year been for you and your family?

Obviously the worst year of our lives. They say that time is a

healer but it has not healed in any way and probably never will. You

realise that you have a life to lead and you sort of have to get on with

it but it is punctuated all the time and it is never a smooth flow

because you are always coming up against the memory or the reality or

the practicalities of the fact that we have lost somebody very near and

dear. I can only imagine it has been very difficult one year on to not

see justice being served. It hasn't and we are a long way from knowing

even if we get that. It is quite a concern to all of us. Although

things are speeding up, and that has been pretty well publicised, that

the one a month is moving to up to six witnesses a month, which is

great, but we still need some pretty solid evidence against this guy

because it is very circumstantial. I don't think either of us, any of us,

will rest until we know that the right person has been brought to

justice. How will you and your family be marking one year on since

Sarah's death? Guernsey can be a very small place and it is rather in

our face at the moment so we are going to spend it together as a

family in the Manchester area. I have been able to immerse myself in

the foundation and many other things that are going on. The media and

that type of thing. For Katie it is terrible. And enduring. How shall I

say this? This is the pinnacle of emotion, this weekend, where we have

just got to try and get through it. I am sure we will, but it will not

be easy. And you can hear much more from Vic

Groves on his fight for justice for Sarah on BBC Radio Guernsey from

seven tomorrow morning. But from me, that's it. Have a nice weekend and

I'll leave you with the weather with David Braine. Good evening. I think

we have a cloudy weekend across the islands this weekend with some rain

in the forecast and a fair amount of low cloud making it misty at times.

Tomorrow is cloudy with drizzle in the wind and a fair amount of low

cloud on the tops of the highest ground of the larger islands.

Overnight, initially some clear spells. Fine to start but dreary to

end with cloud and rain coming in towards dawn. Damp to start, nine or

ten. Through the morning and into the afternoon, the drizzle will

peter out for a time. It is quite misty. Winds becoming southerly and

freshening. Top temperatures about 14. Quite humid and then more

persistent rain possible moving into Sunday. No frost. Cloudy and mild

all weekend. Quite heavy rain on Sunday and it does not clear away

until the end of the day on Monday. Both days are cloudy and worked with

the winds picking up. The south`westerly wind will be fresh

and strong across Kinsey as we move into Sunday. Monday and Tuesday next

week the fine weather returns. Have a good weekend and I leave you with

this summary. well. The national weather forecast

comes from Peter Gibbs.