Category Archives: Downs syndrome

‘Injustice’ to vulnerable NHS patient slammed

SCOTLAND’S public services watchdog has raised concerns about the care of vulnerable adults in Scotland’s hospitals following complaints about patient treatment.

 

  • by ANDREW WHITAKER AND LYNDSAY BUCKLAND

Officials from the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland have now been asked to investigate the complaint in what the ombudsman said was an “injustice” to the 55-year-old patient, who had learning disabilities and severe dementia.

The farm giving disabled people the chance to experience rural life

Medicine comes in many different forms

 Paula with Will Payne and volunteers and participants at High Mead Farm

Medicine comes in many different forms. Whittling wood, tending the land, caring for animals and feeling the sun on your skin can do wonders for physical and mental wellbeing.

Providing that therapy for many members of the community is High Mead Farm near Longham.

Since last autumn the four-acre plot has offered a supported work environment for people with learning and physical difficulties as well as youngsters who are out of work or who have been excluded from school.

Will Payne and Mark Gregory took over the land, which was in a run-down state, but with the help of local people it’s back on track to becoming a sustainable farm.

“We wanted to make it accessible to the whole community,” explained Will.

Mum fuming after bus driver leaves disabled daughter out in cold

A pensioner with a disabled daughter is furious after a bus driver left them out in the cold to give priority to mums with pushchairs.

Tammy Chapman and mum Janet, who is not happy with the way they were treated by a park-and-ride bus driver

Janet Chapman, 61, was with her daughter Tammy, 23, who has Down’s syndrome and was in a wheelchair, at Babraham Road park and ride in Cambridge.

But when they tried to get on a bus, the space designated for disabled people was taken up with pushchairs. When she and her other daughter Jamie, 24, asked the Stagecoach driver if he could move them along or get the mums to fold the buggies, he refused.

Mrs Chapman, of Huntingdon Road, Sawston, has now received an apology from Stagecoach bosses but is not satisfied with the response and accused the other mums of selfishness.

She said: “I got to the bus with my two daughters in good time to go to a dentist’s appointment. The bus was full and the space for wheelchairs was taken up by mums with pushchairs despite it categorically stating on the sign it was for disabled passengers.