Elderly people in nursing homes are being left in “shocking pain” says a survey today, with two in five saying they are in constant agony, and others admitting to having suicidal thoughts.

{mosimage}The research, conducted confidentially among residents whose average age was 82, reveals the extent to which the frail and vulnerable are made to suffer unnecessarily. It was carried out by the Patients Association, the independent lobby group led by Claire Rayner, a former nurse and midwife and well known agony aunt.

The findings are a “disgrace”, said the association’s spokesman Katherine Murphy, who called for a more proactive approach to help a generation who tended not to make a fuss. Eight per cent of those interviewed described their pain as “excruciating”. One 95-year-old woman said: “I will cry every night nearly, the pain is so bad.”

Providing care for the rising number of elderly residents is a problem that needs urgent attention, the director of Hertfordshire’s adult care services has warned. Responding to the Local Government Association’s (LGA) survey on cost shunting from the NHS to local authorities, Sarah Pickup says adult social care funding needed to be addressed immediately.

A brand new service will be launched in North Devon next month providing facilities for almost 2,000 local children. Three new children’s centres in South Molton, Holsworthy and Braunton will provide a range of health, social care and education facilities under one umbrella.

Young people are not sufficiently aware of the dangers of smoking high-strength cannabis, the chief executive of mental health charity Rethink has said. Speaking on Channel 4 News, Paul Jenkins explained that the government needs to clarify the health dangers of cannabis smoking.

Denise Hubble has spent the past 10 years counselling families whose lives have been turned upside down by sexual abuse. Through Mothers of Sexually Abused Children (MOSAC), the qualified therapist, along with 42 volunteers and two other part-time members of staff, help hundreds of families each year.