We're starting off the New Year in some style at Independent Living. As I told you in the last newsletter, 2019 is our 20th anniversary year, which seems worthy of note, in these times of short attention spans!

The first innovation is a fresh new look for the website, preserving all the content that visitors value, but updating the style to make it brighter and more contemporary.

Go and take a look! And let me know what you think...

 

The five finalists in the three-year Mobility Unlimited Challenge have been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. 

The aim of the challenge is to improve the lives of millions of people with lower-limb paralysis, and each of the finalists gets $500,000 towards developing their game-changing concept, with the overall winner receiving $1 million in Tokyo in 2020.

More information here

 

You might have missed it in all the Christmas and New Year activities – Together for Short Lives has been campaigning for better funding for children’s hospices, and NHS England has just announced that it is increasing the vital grant from £11 million to £25 million, better enabling children’s hospices to support seriously ill children.

More details here

 

We have a new showcase page subscriber on Independent Living. Yorkshire Care Equipment is a family-run business which specialises in mobility aids and care equipment, including their own specialist seating solutions for complex needs and multi-user environments.

Although new to us, the company is very well established, having been set up in 1972.

See more on their showcase page

  

The Patients Association has found that people with common conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and ulcerative colitis are being switched to new medicines without consultation or proper support.

Biologic treatments are sometimes being changed to newer and cheaper biosimilars, which don't always suit people so well.

More details here

 

The Winter 2018/19 new product round-up has been sent out to subscribers. Shown here is one of the featured products – Geberit's new AquaClean Mera Care. 

You can read the round-up here, and why not sign up for your own free copy, if you don't already receive it? It is a quarterly digest of new and interesting developments, so it won't overload your inbox! You can sign up here

 

I haven't forgotten about the promised article on posture – all things being equal, it should be in next week's newsletter!

 

Don't forget that you can apply to join the Independent Living Facebook group, if you would like to spend more time discussing these themes with other interested people. 

There are various ways you can get in touch with us: email me; visit our Facebook page and leave a message there; or if it's short and sweet, Tweet!

Previous newsletters are archived here.

If you are reading a copy of the Independent Living newsletter that has been passed on to you by a colleague or friend, why not sign up for your own free subscription – it's quick and easy, and won't lead to your inbox being bombarded with other stuff!

All good wishes,

Frances