Carers express 'utter relief' at 'lottery win' as Mirin and Milldale day centres merger rejected

Carers burst into tears of relief when a controversial proposal to merge two day services for vulnerable people in Renfrewshire was rejected earlier this week.

The suggested amalgamation of the Mirin and Milldale centres for adults with learning disabilities and autism was voted down at a special meeting of the integration joint board (IJB) on Monday. The IJB – responsible for oversight of the health and social care partnership – reconsidered contentious recommendations to combine the centres and close Flexicare after it was split down the middle on how to proceed in March. This time, both were refused after a 5-3 vote.

Helen McAleer, 72, whose 50-year-old daughter Amanda attends Milldale at the On-X Linwood, is one of dozens of battle-weary campaigners who have fought the idea of a merger for months – including through multiple protests at Renfrewshire House. Reflecting on the decision, she said: "It was utter, utter relief. We had carers in tears and I couldn't tell you what kind of relief it was. We are over the moon.

"I just cannot believe that the carers, who are caring 24/7, found the energy and resilience to fight back. I cannot believe we did it. We stood together and did everything we could for our kids who can't speak up for themselves.

"The sense of relief from the client group at the day centre was unbelievable. It was like winning the lottery."

Barbara Scally, 58, whose brother Alistair, 55, also attends Milldale, said the service is his "life" as she opened up on what has been a worrying time for her family. She said: "When the news was coming through, my husband came back from work almost at that point, I was crying and he was crying.

"I'm actually quite emotional about it just now to be honest. It's been sleepless nights for us. It's my brother's life. All of the people he's there with he has known for the best part of 30, 40, 50 years."

Alice Mitchell, 66, whose daughter Laura, 28, attends Mirin at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, said the whole process had been "really stressful". "It's caused sleepless nights – the whole lot," she explained.

"On Monday, I personally felt as if the whole thing was going to explode. The tension was palpable. We were sitting in the room when the vote finally came and I just burst into tears.

"The relief was phenomenal. It just overwhelmed me and it all came flooding out. It was a bit like it had built up and up to this crescendo and then the tears just came. It has been awful, I never want to experience it again."

The proposals, which were initially unveiled in November, said combining Mirin and Milldale would support "evolution of services towards a community delivery outreach model whilst maintaining a building-based provision strand".

A revised service would have focused on eligibility only for people who have family-based support, with a different approach taken for people with supported living care packages. But the status quo will now be maintained.

Lesley Blair, 58, whose son Angus, 27, attends Milldale, said the decision has brought about "some certainty" for people. She said: "For me and Angus' dad it's been sleepless nights for quite a long period of time. It overruns your thought process at all points of time.

"I hate to see injustice. Angus was going to have a service but a lot of his friends were not, he was going to stop seeing them. They are in supported accommodation. I'm pleased about the decision for people in supported accommodation, as well as for my son."

Jack Connolly, 77, whose daughter Caroline, 43, attends Milldale, felt the outcome had shown that carers were stronger for fighting as a collective, rather than on their own. "It was very stressful waiting for the result of this vote," he said.

"The emotion shown by many of the carers, who were in tears, was incredible. It's been months we've been involved in meetings, all sorts of letters and so on. It's been hard going. We are delighted with the result. The group as a whole from Milldale and Mirin was much more effective in fighting this than we would have been as individuals."

Jennifer Adam, chair of the IJB and SNP representative for Paisley Northeast and Ralston, was one of the five who voted to reject both proposals on Monday. At the meeting, she said: "I think of everything that I've learned since we started this process and ultimately with unpaid carers and how much they save us and the effect that's going to have on them.

"We talk about 75 families with regards to the merge, that's 75 families that would be affected. Capacity, I still have concerns about Riverbrae [School], the numbers coming through in the future. I wouldn't want us to be a council that's short-sighted when it comes to that. We're dealing with one of the most vulnerable individual groups here, so I'm mindful of that throughout.

"The fact of what they came through after Covid and how much that has affected their day-to-day. Any sort of transition in the past has always been over a great length of time, so all of these things still sit very heavily with me."

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