Holehird: please save this home (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Holehird: please save this home

7:50am Friday 7th November 2003 in

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Sir, I am writing to express my total disgust with the manner in which the decision to close, or proposal to close, the Residential Home at Holehird (below) was made.

Only a matter of months ago I was one of the many people who attended the ‘Roadshow’ put on by the Leonard Cheshire Regional Management Team where everyone was reassured that the organisation’s process of consultation would be adhered to. The next thing we (residents, families, staff, volunteers, etc) hear from that same Regional Management Team is that they propose to close the home within two to three years.

As you can imagine, everyone here concerned with Holehird, either within the home or the local community, is stunned by this news and many of us are determined to protest against this decision and campaign to get it reversed.

Much has been written by the Leonard Cheshire Foundation about standards in care and no expense spared in their glossy presentation. All of them are laudable, just as the Leonard Cheshire slogan ‘Creating opportunities with disabled people’ is laudable.

What seems to be lamentable is the gap between words and actions, preaching and practice, particularly at the management level.

Some of the residents at the Leonard Cheshire Home at Holehird have lived here for decades, the majority of them are from the area and it would be interesting to know how its proposed closure is creating opportunities with them when neither they nor their families have any desire nor see any need for them to be summarily re-housed elsewhere.

The Leonard Cheshire Foundation has been at the forefront of the campaign to raise the standards of care for people suffering from physical disabilities and has been most influential in the current Government’s legislation on this matter and so it is understandable that it desires to be at the forefront of the implementation of those standards.

However, enough time has gone by already to see that their blanket and rigid implementation is resulting in the closure of a number of residential homes which can surely only be contributing to a huge crisis in the future of residential care and, in my view, unnecessary upheaval and suffering (perhaps to the point of being life-threatening) to the most vulnerable people within our society for whom community care is neither desirable nor functional and doesn’t even make economic sense.

Holehird is under threat because its architecture doesn’t lend itself to the current trend towards small units, en-suite accommodation for each of its 26 residents and respite-care users and is not situated within easy reach of community facilities. The proposal is to build a new purpose-built unit for 20 people – in Lancaster.

We need the support of your readers so that the residents may be enabled to do what they want to do, ie stay where they are.

Please support our campaign in any way you can. Petition forms are available. Phone 01539-442500.

Joan Smith (Volunteer at Holehird Cheshire Home)

Windermere n Sir, I was dismayed when I read your article about the proposed closure of Holehird.

For several years, as local shopkeepers, we have visited the residents of Holehird before Christmas to give them the opportunity to do some of their Christmas shopping from home as many of them find it easier than going to town. I use the word ‘home’ advisedly as that is what it is to the residents – many of whom have lived there for a long time and cannot imagine living anywhere else.

If the problem is the amount of money it would cost to comply with the new draconian Care Standards Act (which has forced the closure of other local care homes) then I suggest that the Government should urgently review and amend these regulations in the light of common sense and human compassion.

I understand that the facilities at Holehird are very good, and witness to that is the number of people who return there for respite care.

The Government’s vision for more people to be cared for in their own home is very commendable, but the residents of Holehird are already in their own home, and are well integrated into the local community – as well as local traders visiting, so do school children and ‘volunteers’ who have become friends. Outings are organised, so the residents are as much part of the community as any of us.

The Charity’s director may feel that Holehird is isolated, but not everyone wants to live in the urban location – if (God forbid) I were not able to get out and about, I would much prefer to be able to look out over the beautiful grounds, admire the wildlife, and possibly chat to the many workers and visitors to the gardens.

Of course, the easy option is to close Holehird and rehouse everyone where it is most convenient (for the owners), but neat solutions cannot always be found when people are involved.

I have always been struck by the warm, homely atmosphere at Holehird, built up over the years, no doubt, by the fact that the residents, staff and visitors know one another well – how long, I wonder, before this could be achieved again?

K. Pearson The Chocolate Shop Grange-over-Sands n Sir, In the case of Holehird, if three million pounds is to be invested in a new building, instead of Holehird and Garstang, then why not invest that money into the present homes?

After 20 years being connected in a small and I may say very privileged way to Holehird, we have seen many residents given the chance to a greater quality of life than they would have perhaps had in a purpose-built institutional type of home.

We stress Holehird is and has been home to these people, not ‘A home’. And, as the saying goes, anyone of them could have been you or us.

On a warm spring or summer’s day, what a beautiful garden with a wonderful view to be able to sit out in. Lots of space indoors to drive one’s chair around, instead of just a yard or two.

Over the years much has been done to alter Holehird into what it has become, a lovely home with a welcome to new residents and those who go for a respite, in other words a short holiday for them or to allow family to have a holiday.

May the petitions spread. Save our home.

Flo and Douglas Davison Kents Bank