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Elderly Care
Local Support
Home Instead: Memory Cafés, Afternoon Teas and Singing for the Brain
Every month at Home Instead we offer a number of not-for-profit social activities designed to help people live well with memory issues in the local community.
6 different Memory Cafés in Kingston, New Malden and Wimbledon.
Afternoon Teas at Warren House.
Singing for the Brain in conjunction with the Alzheimers Society
Staywell
Staywell provides a specialist Information, Advice & Advocacy Service to anyone aged 60 years living in the Borough of Kingston upon Thames and/or their family/carers. The service is free, independent and confidential, and accredited by the Advice Quality Standard (AQS).
Connected Kingston: Sound Doctor
Sound Doctor provides bite-sized, easy to understand and easy to watch videos to help you understand and cope with a variety of issues and illnesses.
Self Management of Ear Wax
Ear wax is also called cerumen. It is a normal secretion of the ceruminous glands in the outer ear where it provides protection by stopping dust, dirt or foreign bodies entering the ear canal. Wax is slightly acidic, which provides natural protection from infection.
What is ear wax?
Ear wax is also called cerumen. It is a normal secretion of the ceruminous glands in the outer ear where it provides protection by stopping dust, dirt or foreign bodies entering the ear canal. Wax is slightly acidic, which provides natural protection from infection. A build-up of wax is more likely to occur in older adults, hearing aid users or people who insert devices into their ears.
Do ears need to be cleaned?
Do Not
Use cotton buds to try and remove the wax as this will push the wax further into the ear canal and block your ear.
Use of cotton buds can lead to infection and damage the ear.
Your ears should be self-cleaning.
What can I do if wax is causing a problem?
If you are experiencing ear pain or discharge, you are welcome to make contact with the surgery using the usual routes or otherwise by calling the practice.
If you have been told you have excess wax, you may use olive oil drops to encourage the natural movement of wax from the ear canal:
- Apply the drops whilst lying on your side with the affected ear upwards.
- Apply one to two drops into the ear canal and gently massage the area in front of the ear.
- Remain lying on your side for 10 minutes to allow the olive oil to soften the wax.
- After 10 minutes, slowly sit up whilst holding a tissue against your ear to soak up any oil exiting the canal.
- Repeat this procedure for the other ear if required.
An olive oil spray is also available, which avoids the need to lie on your side for 10 minutes. This can be helpful if you find it difficult to lie on one side for prolonged periods.
Olive oil drops and spray can be purchased from the pharmacy or supermarket.
If the wax is not improving with the above measures there are times ear irrigation can be performed by the nursing team at the surgery.
There are also services offered locally for a charge by some opticians to remove earwax by micro-suction, the method commonly used by the ear specialists to remove ear wax.
Connected Kingston - Better Bones Service
The Better Bones service offers a free 10-12 week local exercise and/or educational programme on how to improve your joint and bone health.
Connected Kingston - Move Well, Live Well
The Move Well, Live Well service offers a range of activities that can help you to stay active. These include gentle exercises, social sports clubs and hobbies that will keep you moving.
National Support
Dementia UK
Dementia UK offers specialist one-to-one support and expert advice for people living with dementia.
Age UK
Age UK is the country’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. Age UK believe in a world where everyone can love later life and we work every day to achieve this.
The Silver Line
The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year
Cinnamon Trust
Cinnamon Trust is the only specialist national charity which seeks to relieve the anxieties, problems, and sometimes injustices, faced by elderly and terminally ill people and their pets, thereby saving a great deal of human sadness and animal suffering.