Hundreds of community sector jobs could be at risk due to the failure of the Department of Social Development to approve funding for Neighbourhood Renewal schemes, the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action has warned.

A new multi-agency team has been set up in Northern Ireland to monitor the most dangerous sexual and violent offenders after they are released from prison.

THE HUMAN rights of 150 vulnerable, severely disabled patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital must not be compromised by government proposals to resettle them into community care.

THE SIMON Community has called on the Government to protect the vulnerable and marginalised of society in the current economic climate.

MENTAL HEALTH problems cost the economy more than €3 billion in 2006, or 2 per cent of Gross National Product (GNP), a new report has found. Meanwhile, the percentage of health funding spent on mental health services has halved since the 1980s.

Crosscare, the social care agency, is to close a 14-bed night shelter for homeless men in Dublin.

A VACCINATION programme against cervical cancer will be available in schools in Larne Borough next month, according to the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

Pam Arnsberger, professor and researcher at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s School of Social Work, has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for Senior Researchers at Queens University in Northern Ireland to study and evaluate outcomes of consumer-based caregiver models of service delivery for the elderly.

SOME 29 homes for elderly people in Northern Ireland have received written warnings from inspectors since 2005.

Two care assistants have spoken to the BBC about what goes on behind closed doors in some old people’s homes in Northern Ireland.