Madam,

During the period of concerns by many in the community arising from the proposed closure of Bodlondeb care home, in Aberystwyth, all of us should at the same time remain mindful of the sort of care we would wish to have for ourselves in the future.

Other than care at home and sheltered housing, our present range of care in Ceredigion includes residential care homes, nursing care homes, as well as specialist care homes. These replaced what were the Dickensian workhouses and some of those old buildings are still with us in Ceredigion. In some cases our exiting residential care homes occupy the sites of those workhouses.

One of the early residential home in Ceredigion had dormitories. The early Ceredigion residential homes had several shared rooms. These were phased out to provide more single rooms.

Each stage of change attracted some opposition from public and politicians alike that we find surprising looking back today. Even in recent years the changes required by new legisation to provide en-suite rooms has been called into question in some quarters. Queuing for shared toilets and sharing bathrooms may still be the case in some of our residential homes.

Nothing stays the same, nor should it necessarily do so, and I believe we are at the point of a need for another major change in our care services in Ceredigion. Though we will continue to need nursing homes, there may be is a better option for us: old-fashioned residential care. Each community has one or more residential homes funded as a new service to replace the workhouse. Each community now needs 21st century “extra care” facilities in each of our communties. This has already mentioned by some in your letters page.

These with the proper financial arrangements and integrated with the modernisation of sheltered housing and all the other components of care could replace our outdated system of residential care and provide for both the older person and their partner to stay together with dignity within “their own home”. This is not a panacea but a progressive step from where we are now.

This is I believe accords with the strategic direction of Ceredigion County Council and the health service and they should be congratulated on the difficult preparatory work that is seeing some fruition in its developments in Cardigan and its proposals for Tregaron.

Major changes are painful, difficult and lengthy, especially set against such tough financial restrictions. Is it Don Quixote who said “..madness is seeing the world as it is instead of as it should be”.

Yours etc,

David Harries, 25 Caer Wylan, Cefnllan, Aberystwyth

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