Visiting Time

Corstorphine Hospital, a few years ago...

As mentioned in the post below summer and less meetings presents an opportunity to get out and visit services and people. On Friday as part of the programme for the new Health and Social Care Partnership we visited Corstorphine Hospital which provides nursing care to frail, elderly people and then the newly opened Drumbrae Care Home. Both venues provide a good standard of care, obviously to different categories of service users, based on need, but in hugely different settings. Corstorphine is an old, traditional hospital (Florence Nightingale wards, I was told) and Drumbrae is brand new, state of art and feels quite luxurious, a sign that accommodation standards are improving and expectations, quite rightly, increasing. The challenge is to find the funding to deliver more new facilities.

This morning saw an organised tour of three voluntary sector organisations delivering services in the city centre. First the Canongate Youth Project which works with youngsters between the ages of 5 - 25 although today we focused more on the support to school leavers who don't go into employment or further education and need to be equipped with the skills to put together a CV and handle the trauma of a job interview. More info on their excellent website.

Then a wander up to Guthrie Street and the new home of Remade Edinburgh (website/blog link) which works to support people (all of us) to reduce waste by reusing and repairing items that all too often end up in land fill sites. Everything from toys and fabrics to computers and furniture can be repaired and reused and Remade is part of a growing international movement as people become more aware of and dissatisfied with today's consumerist and disposable society. They also gave us chocolate biscuits and strawberries !!

Finally, another short walk to the Serenity Café and a meeting with Comas, who work with people recovering from addictions and the numerous issues confronting individuals and families who are affected. A really interesting discussion about these services and the role of the third sector in their delivery and ability to sometimes be more innovative and imaginative than is sometimes possible through traditional methods. More about them on this link.