Kate’s dream will help with son’s special care
Mum’s vision for a community care centre
A Comrie mother is pushing ahead with her vision to set up an innovative residential therapeutic community in Perth and Kinross for those with complex and profound learning disabilities.
Kate Sainsbury’s son Louis is severely brain-injured due to neonatal meningitis.
The 31-year-old lived happily in a home run by Sense Scotland in Glasgow until recently, when the home closed. Kate had to urgently find temporary accommodation to meet Louis’ specialist care.
But the only availability was south of the border.
Now Kate wants to form a small residential community where the needs of Louis’ and others like him can be met.
Kate envisages a small holding - known as an Appletree Community - where Louis and other residents would have their own individual cottages to live in. They would all be linked around a central garden space and community building, where community activities can take place and which will also attract people from the wider area for cooking, art, painting and gardening activities amongst other things.
She has identified a suitable property in Perthshire, which she is keen to purchase using funds awarded to Louis for his brain injuries through a medical negligence case.
Kate explained: “Louis had a small group of devoted carers where he was. He has had to move on from his former home but there is no availability of suitable accommodation here. Louis needs a dedicated carer with him at all times. There is a real need for an Appletree Community in Perthshire.”
And Kate is ploughing ahead with her plans.
PAMIS (Promoting a More Inclusive Society), the representative voice within Perth and Kinross for people with complex and profound learning disabilities, is supporting her vision.
Kate continued: “A wonderful woman, Maureen Phillip, director in Tayside at PAMIS, a partnership agency to the Scottish Government in the delivery of ‘The Keys to Life’ learning disability strategy, has also been a great support to me.
“The Richmond Fellowship Scotland is going to provide Louis’ care and it is such a great vision. I also hope to make a film about it and make a presentation on the Appletree Community at the 2019 International Association for the Scientific Study of Developmental Disability in Glasgow.
“We are already beginning to build a team of staff for an Appletree Community and interested carers can contact the Richmond Fellowship to discuss an application.”
Kate is a Lay Reader in the Strathearn Group of Churches, Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, and is the sole recipient of this year’s Alastair Haggart Bursary Award, which will enable her to visit leaders in the field of similar communities to garner the knowledge to help make her vision a reality.
On her return Kate will compile a report to present to the Scottish Government on her findings.
She added: “The way Louis has coped with his recent move to temporary care has shown that the right high quality professional support, involving activities and routine, enables Louis to be the delightful man that he is, and I have every hope that an Appletree Community here in Perthshire will enable him to return home to Scotland and also provide others with similar opportunities.”
• Anyone interested in a position as a carer in the Appletree Community can contact the Richmond Fellowship administrator, Lesley Berwick, on 01738 440012 for more information.
Kate and Louis at Auchingarrich. Pic: Irene Cormack