Strabane Weekly News - News - Hundreds sign petition opposed to feared day centre closure

News

Hundreds sign petition opposed to feared day centre closure

Thursday, 29 July 2010

A PETITION against the proposed closure of a Strabane day centre that provides an essential service for people with physical disabilities and their families has already gained 500 names, campaigners have revealed.
For the last 20 years, people with a range of physical disabilities have travelled from around the district and within Strabane to the town's Bridge Street centre, housed within the offices of Strabane and District Caring Services (SDCS). Classes, from computing to African drumming, are held during weekly morning sessions.
For those who use it, it is an essential social outlet and a source of respite for their families. It is "a break from the monotony", "it's our own community, like a big family", they told the Strabane Weekly News yesterday (Tuesday).
However, just over a week ago, clients were told the centre will close on September 30.
They will instead attend training classes provided by the Cedar Foundation in Londonderry for six weeks "to find out what [they] are good at", they have been told. Then, they will be placed in the community, a fate they are highly apprehensive about.
However, opposition to the move is strong, and a petition to that effect has already gathered 500 names.
Cutbacks
For the men and women who use the centre, its mooted closure is one chapter in a swath of cutbacks, points they will raise with Trust staff at a meeting in the day centre this morning (Wednesday).
“She [a social worker] told me there was a big world out there and you should be out in the middle of it. She told me the centre is no good for me," Rhonda McShane from Strabane, who has used the centre for 15 years, claimed, as she described a rare home visit from a social worker in July last year.
“She said that here too," Roseanne Molloy, another user, added. "She basically made us feel really small, like we were good for nothing. That's the feeling I got. They said to us it was like a conveyer belt. You start here, they build up your confidence, they put you in something that you like to do, and then they send you out into the community."
Speaking yesterday, a spokesperson for the Western Trust said, "Trust clients... are supportive of a change to a service which is more focussed on social integration in the local community through vocational based and voluntary opportunities. These opportunities maximise a client's potential, moving away from the traditional model of day care to one which fosters independence and give clients the opportunity for training and skills to be gained.
"Trust clients who use SDCS day care are fully informed and a consultation process with each individual client started over a year ago."
But those who use the day centre do not agree.
Brilliant
“We don't want to go," Roseanne Molloy said. "We have history and computer classes and we had an African drums class which was brilliant. We have all the things here. I don't understand why we have to go to Derry when we have it all here. They are going to pay to take us down there."
“It is down to money I think," Colette Molloy, a client of the centre for nearly 20 years, added. "I think it is terrible. But them people at the top should be just put into a wheelchair or/and a pair of crutches and tell them to manage for 24 hours, and then see if they want to be put into the community. They are not taking people's feelings into consideration."
Colette was paralysed after she developed a tumour on her spinal cord. While feeling has partially returned more than 20 years later, the day centre has been a fundamental part of her life during these years. "I don't think I would have anywhere to go [if the centre closed]," she said. "There is nowhere for us in Strabane. You always have clubs for MS but there are no clubs for anyone who had a tumour in their spinal cord. I used to go to another centre on Barrack Street before this and everyone was so sick, I was going into it being sick and coming out of it being sick.
“Why I want to fight for this is everything seems to be going out of Strabane. They have taken enough out of Strabane without taking anything else." While the Western Trust does not fund Strabane and District Caring Service's (SDCS) day centre, it contributes to the facility through a contract it has agreed with SDCS. This funds day support or day care for Trust clients attending the day centre.
A Western Trust spokesperson said that SDCS was made aware of a "contract review" more than six months ago, but "nothing has been finalised in relation to this contract". However, she did confirm that "the day support element is due to change on September 30, 2010".
No further details have been provided to users about what their 'placement' in the community will entail, and the Western Trust would not clarify this when asked by this newspaper yesterday (Tuesday).