1,000 join battle to retain care home

1,000 join battle to retain care home

2 December 2015

ALMOST 1,000 people have responded to an online petition protesting against the closure of a Ballynahinch nursing home.

The campaign was launched by Crossgar woman Jenny Grainger following news that Oakridge Nursing Home will close at the end of February, forcing 58 elderly residents into new accommodation and leading to the redundancy to 74 staff members.

Jenny’s 82 year-old father Michael Grainger, who has had dementia for eight years, has been at Oakridge since February after his family realised he could no longer be adequately looked after at home.

Jenny said they have been so relieved to find him a place in the specialist Ballynahinch unit, where they had hoped he could stay until the end of his life, but are very concerned about what his future now holds.

She said her dad is just one of the many dementia sufferers at the home who would struggle to adapt to a move and said she will therefore do everything possible to persuade officials to retain the unit. She said she was startled by the level of public support for her fledgling campaign.

Hundreds of people across Northern Ireland have signed an online petition seeking its retention and the security of other homes that will also close as a result of the review. Almost 2,000 people shared a photograph Jenny posted to her Facebook page showing her dad enjoying a foot massage in the home.

“The staff really love the residents they are looking after. They treat them like members of their own families,” she said.

“My dad is really safe and well cared for at Oakridge and I can tell the staff care very deeply for him and the other residents.”

Jenny said she unwittingly broke news of the impending closure to staff last Tuesday morning after receiving a letter from Four Seasons Health Care, which owns the home, informing her of the decision.

“I phoned the home to ask to speak to the manager and told the receptionist why I was phoning and she had no idea what was happening,” she said.

“It took my dad a long time to settle into his new environment when he moved into Oakridge in February.

“It takes him so long to adjust to something new, a new face, anything is disturbing to him.

“But he has settled now. We can tell because he is relaxed and there are so signs of stress. We 

assumed that would be the case until he dies.

“If we now have to take him somewhere else it will be very hard to find somewhere that will take him to the end of his life.

“The thought of taking him to a new environment with new people and starting from scratch is very difficult.

Jenny, whose dad had been living in Scotland before moving into Oakridge, said her family had chosen the Ballynahinch facility because it was “the best we could find.”

“It was a big decision to make but we knew it was the right place for my dad,” she said.

“Many of these elderly people, like my dad, will be very agitated by any move and that is why I am campaigning for the place to be saved.”

Jenny is urging people to support her online petition at change.org (save Oakridge Nursing Home). She has also set up a Facebook page to bolster her campaign and to arrange a meeting for staff and the family of residents that she hopes will take place on Thursday evening.