Great Croft closure - Councillor Pat Callaghan laments: ‘If we don’t have money in the budget we can’t run these vital services’

Published: 03 February 2011
by JOSIE HINTON

CARERS of sick and housebound relatives have warned that they will face “isolation, depression and despair” following the imminent closure of Camden’s day centres and other services for the elderly.

They warned that it is not just the elderly users themselves who will be hit if the facilities are axed – relatives who dedicate their days to caring for frail and housebound family say they will lose their vital opportunity for respite.

Rohima Begum, of Cromer Street, was referred to the Great Croft Resource Centre in King’s Cross around a year ago when her husband, who has prostate cancer, began to deteriorate rapidly. 

Struggling with English and her husband’s worsening condition, she had fallen into a deep depression and was finding it increasingly difficult to cope.

“I used to just walk around the streets feeling alone and not knowing what to do,” Mrs Begum said. “But then I started coming to the centre and now I have made lots of friends who have supported me. It is the only place I can come.”

Through her weekly visits, she has met people in similar situations and now takes advantage of the transport services provided to get her husband out of their fifth floor flat so she can do basic things like cleaning and shopping.

Another carer, Amina Begum, whose 85-year-old husband is housebound with dementia, also relies on the centre for periods of respite when she can deal with her own issues, including language difficulties.

“At the moment I go swimming and take English language classes at the centre, but if it closes I would have to stay in the house 24 hours a day because he is not safe to leave on his own,” she said. 

“In my culture we don’t put our relatives in care homes but the time I am given by the centre means I am fresh and can cope. Without it I would be completely isolated and become very depressed.” 

Since proposals to axe pensioner’s day centres, luncheon clubs and advice centres were revealed last month, the New Journal’s letters pages have been flooded with desperate pleas to keep the ser­vices running.

Such is the strength of feeling that elderly and disabled people took to the streets with placards last month and surrounded the Town Hall in protest.

Staff at the three day centres in the south of the borough – Great Croft, Millman Street and Hillwood – have spent years breaking down language barriers and bringing different communities together.

Among the most concerned are relatives of dementia sufferers, the majority of who were referred to the centre’s weekly dementia group by the council. Alternative specialist dementia services such as the Netherwood Day Centre are also facing closure.

Councillor Pat Callaghan, cabinet member for adult and social care, said she was “extremely distressed” about the closures of the services, but insisted the council has been left with no other option.

She said: “Camden currently spends twice as much as any other London borough on adult social care, and that is what we want to do. But I have had £16million cut from my budget and we just won’t have the money to provide anything other than care for people with substantial and critical needs.

“My greatest worry is that these day centres are preventative and we are going to see more people with critical needs – but if you don’t have the money in your budget you can’t run the services.”

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