Respite care talk for Inner Wheel ladies

Sep 18 2008 by Margaret Shaw, Hamilton Advertiser

NEW president Jean Cook presided over the Inner Wheel Club of Hamilton's first meeting of the new term.

Jean, wife of the Rev Stan Cook, takes over the reins of the club for the second time.

The main speaker was Bill Shanks, a retired policeman and carer for his son Russell, who has profound learning difficulties.

He spoke about the charity PHEW (Positive Help Engaging Ways) which provides respite care.

PHEW is now a charity that has benefited from Lottery funding that was matched by the Lanarkshire Health Board. The charity has also received contributions from the European Fund, North Lanarkshire and other agencies.

The organisation, however, started very humbly with Eva Maguire and friends helping each other by providing respite care in each others' houses for family members with learning difficulties. This developed to the stage where in three years 42 families took affected people for two weekends per year.

As demand for the provision continued to increase it was felt that there was a need for these arrangements to become more formal, even provide purpose-built accommodation.

Initially funding was difficult, but in 1992 a group of the carers bought and converted an old building in Coatbridge. Once up and running financial assistance became more readily available and PHEW now has purpose-built accommodation near Motherwell Town Centre that provides single en-suite bedrooms, small gymnasium, a hydrotherapy facility and a garden with seating for the residents.

From an informal organisation with its roots in friends and carers PHEW is now an established non-profit making charity that provides all year respite care for 300 families all with considerable local authority input.

It has even hosted eight adults and four carers from Romania for a 12-day much-needed holiday.

The charity now benefits from considerable local authority assistance.

Past President Liz Pettigrew provided the vote of thanks.