Daughter of well-kent Ullapool man Nabbie Mackenzie (92) reveals heartache impact of closure of Mo Dhachaidh care home as loved ones face 110-mile round trip to visit
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ROSS-SHIRE's care home crisis has been thrust into the spotlight with the daughter of one much-loved 92-year-old speaking out about the devastating impact on families.
It emerged this week that Castle Gardens in Invergordon is planning to close due to long-term staffing difficulties.
It follows Mo Dhachaidh in Ullapool, closed by long-established Highland care home provider Parklands just months after taking it over, citing the toughest economic climate in decades.
Concerned locals are petitioning for restoration of the home and mooting the possibility of NHS Highland – which already runs Lochbroom House there – taking it on.
Campaigners include Amanda Mackenzie whose father, MacNab 'Nabbie' MacKenzie is currently in a care home 60 miles away in Inverness.
He had been able to live at home with family care and respite at Lochbroom House but subsequently needed long-term care as he became more frail.
While Inverness was seen as a short-term solution, the closure of Mo Dhachaidh was "devastating". Amanda said: "We never expected our dad would live out his final days so far away from home. My dad, like his family before him, has lived all his life in this village."
He is well-known and respected across generations of the Ullapool community having run Shearwater Cruises and in 2015 wrote a book of reminiscences titled Nabbie's Yarns.
"Like the rest of the UK, we have an ageing population, but the answer is not to centralise and send our elderly away at the end of their lives, far away from their families, their friends and their home." - Amanda Mackenzie
Amanda said: "Dementia is a horrible disease and as it has progressed my dad’s short–term memory has failed. What is left are those memories that are hard-wired into his brain and one of the comforts he had before he went into care was being able to go out and see people and places that he recognised and meant something to him.
"So many people would come and speak to him when we were out and about, and even though he may not really remember them, there was a familiarity in the conversation with them which made him feel part of something. Being in Inverness is meaningless to him, and although the staff at Highview are so good to him, it is not what he wants and he feels a great sense of loss, so much so that we as a family are seeing a much greater decline in him."
The 110-mile round trip is taxing on time, energy and resources though a family member tries to see him every day.
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She added: "It is so important on so many levels for the care of our elderly to be local. When my dad had respite care in Ullapool, he was known to all the staff who worked there. Lochboom House and Mo Dhachaidh provided much-needed jobs in the area.
"For a village to remain a vibrant living community, a place where people want to come and live, it needs to have the resources to support them when they need them the most. Like the rest of the UK, we have an ageing population, but the answer is not to centralise and send our elderly away at the end of their lives, far away from their families, their friends and their home.
"My dad, Nabbie, and all of our family are now experiencing the awful cost of the decision to close Mo Dhachaidh."
The Mo Dhachaidh petition reads:
"Mo Dhachaidh is one of only two nursing homes serving the entire northwest Highlands from Kyle of Lochalsh to Durness and has recently been closed by its owners, Parklands Care Homes, with the loss of 19 beds and 18 jobs.
"This leaves Isle View as the only nursing home left operating in the northwest Highlands amidst an increasingly aging population, meaning that those requiring nursing home care will have to be relocated to homes far from family and friends.
"Highland Council and NHS Highland have recently put together a rescue package to save Main's House in Newtonmore from closure. We demand that a similar package must be put in place to save nursing home care in Ullapool and avert the looming care crisis in the northwest Highlands."
The petition has 807 signatories at time of writing and can be seen here.
