New Homes for Fochabers Tenants

Community Integrated Care is proud to be working in partnership with Health and Social Care Moray, to support four men with learning disabilities to move into their own homes in the heart of their community.  

The four gentlemen, aged from 31 to 60, had previously been living in shared homes in Fochabers, with communal dining and living areas. It was identified that this was no longer fit for purpose, with the buildings needing extensive work in order to provide an environment in which the gentlemen would flourish. Health and Social Care Moray have embarked on a Learning Disability Transformational Change Programme, designed to focus on improving outcomes for people with learning disabilities. This system-wide change is leading to services being designed around the care and support needs of individuals – improving their quality of life by helping them achieve their aspirations for greater levels of independence with a reduced need for support services.

Through collaboration and partnership with Moray Health & Social Care, Community Integrated Care, Osprey Housing, the gentlemen and their families, it was agreed to move to a progression focussed model of supported living which offers greater choice, control, privacy and independence over how care and support needs are met.

The move to their new self-contained apartments and to a Supported Living model of care is a huge development, making the men tenants in their own home for the first time. It marks the beginning of a very exciting future, with a greater sense of independence and choice, as well as a wealth of new life skills, including doing their own cooking, laundry and cleaning for the first time.

The new homes are individual one bedroom flats and part of the Osprey Housing development in Fochabers. Osprey Housing are a partnership of not for profit businesses with the vision of making a difference every day.

Wilma MacKenzie’s son Iain has recently moved from Castlehill Care Home to his new home. She says: “We are happy that Iain has settled so well at Castle Avenue, and that both ourselves and the support staff have worked together to make this a positive move. Iain is very happy in his new flat!”

Jayne Findlay, Community Integrated Care’s Head of Service in Scotland, has been involved in the project throughout. She says: “It’s early days but everyone has settled in fantastically and are already enjoying a much improved quality of life. It’s been a really collaborative and productive journey between Health and Social Care Moray, Osprey Housing and Community Integrated Care and has already resulted in fantastic outcomes. The tenants are now able to take part in everyday things that many of us will take for granted, such as shopping, welcoming visitors and gardening – and they’re absolutely thriving.”

Joyce Lorimer, Integrated Services Manager for Health and Social Care Moray added “Our transformational change programme is enabling a whole system approach to working  with individuals and providers to develop more personalised and progression focussed services which are making a positive difference to people’s lives. We are delighted to be part of supporting these men to lead the kind of life they want to.”