SAVE THE BROOKDALE

The meeting was very well attended by the families of service users who spoke at length very passionately about the care and support offered in the Brookdale. This centre is the only one in this area, which specialises in people suffering from dementia.

·         The extra travelling time this would put onto people, some people already spend over one hour on the buses and this would be a big impact on them.

·         This centre is the only one in this area, which specialises in people suffering from dementia.

·         Currently the other two centres that these people would be moved to have no decent parking and do not take people suffering from this illness. Service users’ families were assured that the new plans would cover all this and have fully trained staff on hand. However the social service staff running the meeting would ‘not’ answer the question posed to them as to whether the Brookdale staff would be part of that team.

·         Relatives complained that the questionnaire put out was inadequate, never once did it mention dementia.

·         Information/questionnaires it seemed had been sent out in the Christmas post so many people did not receive them in time. It was put forward by one gentleman that a good way would be just to give one letter to each centre for them to copy and hand to all service users to enable them to reply in time.

·         Dwayne Johnson said that the centre was being underutilised, but many families stated that the only way they found out about this centre was by chance.

·         One lady (Cath Regan) put forward at the meeting that she works in childcare and there is now a whole integrated, multi-agency, approach to working with children and it works well. She said this is what is needed in this case, as well as more advertising regarding what the centre can offer families in way of support.

·         The advertising at present for this centre seems to be non-existent and does not tell families in need how this centre can help them.

Ainsdale’s Libdem councillor, Haydn Preece, was also present with his colleague electoral Candidate, Lynne Thompson. They stated the following…

“We are very concerned over decline in referrals over the last two years and the transport implications for service users. Consultation feedback at the service users meeting was very much to retain the specialist aspects of Brookdale. However, the feeling from the carers was this closure is a ‘fait accompli’. Let’s see if this is real consultation! It wasn’t the case with libraries in Southport nor the preservation of our Ainsdale High Sports Hall.”