Tag Archives: Scotland

Campaigner launches film telling dementia carers ‘it’s okay to ask’ for help

Date of article: 16-Aug-13

Article By: Laura McCardle, News Editor

A dedicated campaigner has launched a short film encouraging people who care for someone with dementia to ask for help.

Tommy Whitelaw with his mother Joan

Tommy Whitelaw put together ‘It’s okay to ask’ in order to reach out to carers in Glasgow and raise awareness of vital support services available in the city.

He has first-hand experience of the difficulties people face when they care for a loved one with the condition, having spent several years caring for his mother Joan after she was diagnosed with vascular dementia until she passed away in September last year.

In the film Mr Whitelaw says: “Caring for Mum was a full time occupation. It was the toughest experience of my life. For the first five years I did this almost entirely alone – yes we had friends, neighbours and family but slowly loneliness and isolation took their place, leaving us both struggling to cope.

“It wasn’t until I reached absolute crisis that I found myself on the phone asking for help. It’s okay to ask. It’s not something we are always taught to do, we are very private people keeping private matters to ourselves but the truth is, without help it can just become unbearable.”

Other carers who have found themselves in similar situations to Mr Whitelaw also share their experiences in the film, which was commissioned by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow City Council social work services, Alzheimer’s Scotland and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE.

Humanity must come before parking fines!

Parking fine refunded to Good Samaritan after the News step in

Aug 7 2013 by Andrea O’Neill, East Kilbride News

Blue meanies slapped a parking ticket on the car of a Good Samaritan who stopped to provide urgent care to an elderly dementia sufferer.

Humanist Celebrant Ross Wright was hit with a £60 fine while responding to what he claims was a medical emergency.

Carer mum wins washroom war

A MUM forced to wash her disabled son at an £80-a-night hotel is to get a life-changing new bathroom — thanks to The Scottish Sun.

A MUM forced to wash her disabled son at an £80-a-night hotel is to get a life-changing new bathroom — thanks to The Scottish Sun.

June Monaghan bathed her lad Jonjo Murphy at a Premier Inn for seven months because social services refused to adapt her home.

But after we intervened this month, Glasgow City Council has pledged to fit a special shower unit in 17-year-old Jonjo’s room.

And June, 49, will get massage therapy for back pain caused by lifting her son, who has cerebral palsy.

The relieved ex-pub landlady — who also cares for brain-damaged hubby Robert, 51, at their home in the city’s Robroyston — said yesterday: “I’m very grateful to The Scottish Sun. Things are starting to happen.”