McCarron is special guest of the Probus
Carstairs communications chief gives a talk
President Chris Hyslop opened proceedings at Strathaven Probus Club’s latest meeting by announcing the passing of two former members — John More (president 1991/2) and Bill McSeveney. A minute’s silence was observed in their memory.
The main event of the meeting was a powerpoint presentation by Caroline McCarron, head of communications at The State Hospital at Carstairs.
She began by describing the main features of the 60-acre, high-security campus in which patients suffering from a mental illness are detained.
The State Hospital has the dual responsibility of caring for and treating its patients, and ensuring the public’s safety.
Patients are subject to different levels of observation, dependent upon their clinical needs. Not all patients have committed offences.
However, others have committed a huge variety of serious offences prior to admission.
The hospital has facilities to detain some 144 patients at any one time, accommodated in a dozen12-bedded wards.
The average length of stay is six years eight months. Some patients have been there for as long as 40 years — others stay for as short a period as two months.
Caroline went on to describe some of the illnesses suffered by patients, ranging from schizophrenia to neurotic, stress-related disorder.
Some 98 per cent of patients are clinically obese and lack the motivation to remedy that situation.
The hospital offers a wide range of on-site facilities including gardening, with greenhouses, animal therapy, patient learning centres, health centres, sport and fitness centres with gymnasia both inside and outdoors, and a woodcraft centre as an avenue for creative expression.
It takes some five staff to attend to the needs of each patient and every effort is made to rehabilitate each patient so that they require lower levels of security.
Success in this results in some 30 patients a year being released to one of three “step down” facilities.
After the tea interval, Caroline answered a wide range of questions and was complimented on her presentation by several members.
Some expressed amazement at the changes that had taken place from the time they had contact in 1993 in various capacities – although not as patients.
Past president John Duncan, in his vote of thanks, complimented Caroline on her handling of what was a complex subject, and on the amount of information she was able to convey in such a short time, giving members much food for thought.