Day care closure plans will break friendships

Jun 13 2009 by David Black, The Journal

A DISABLED great-grandmother says bonds of friendship between elderly people and dedicated carers will be severed if seven council-run day centres in Northumberland are closed down.

Widow Vicky Hindhaugh, 73, spoke yesterday of the “anger and sadness” which has been provoked by the proposals to axe the popular centres in Amble, Bedlington, Blyth, Ponteland, Prudhoe, Hexham and Haltwhistle, which are used by about 370 elderly and disabled people.

Mrs Hindhaugh – who uses a wheelchair since a stroke left her partly paralysed 10 years ago and suffers from heart trouble and diabetes – has been attending the Lyndon House day care centre in Blyth twice-a-week for four years.

It is one of seven facing closure under a shake-up which would see users given ‘personal budgets’ which they can spend on getting out of the house and taking part in social activities of their choice. Yesterday the county council said the proposed closures form part of a £1.28m cost-cutting exercise in adult care.

Mrs Hindhaugh said the centres offered old and disabled people the vital opportunity of meeting others in a similar situation to share a coffee, have a chat, exercise to music and take part in activities such as quizzes and trips out.

“I have developed great friendships with other people at Lyndon House and one of the most important things I also find is that the staff are like friends,” she said.

“This will all end if the centre is closed and I fear some of the people I have become friends with will just stay inside their homes and get more and more depressed.”