BORDERERS with learning disabilities have reflected on how their lives have changed since the millennium at an event in Galashiels.

The meeting took place as part of Learning Disability Week in May.

The week is held annually to highlight the positive contribution that people with learning disabilities make to their local communities. 

This year the theme was ‘Looking back, thinking forward’ and focused on how changes to government policy have affected the lives of people with a learning disability and their family carers.

In addition, members of the five Local Citizens Panels, established in late 2014 to give people with a learning disability a voice in their local communities, gave presentations on their achievements over the previous year and outlined their aims for the next 12 months.

They also unveiled their new Citizens Panel Welcome Pack, a toolkit designed to help new members, and launched a recruitment drive to attract new members.

The chairs of the five panels, Callum McDonald (Tweeddale), Jennifer Freedman (Galashiels and Selkirk), Martin Aitchison (Berwickshire), Neil Willis (Hawick and Jedburgh) and Brian Boardman (vice chairman Kelso and Coldstream), said in a joint statement: “We have wanted a welcome pack for some time now to help us explain what the panels are, how they work and who the members are. 

“We’re always keen to welcome new members and felt that a welcome pack would be a useful way of explaining to them why they should join us and all the benefits they would get out of it.

“It was a lot of work to create the packs but we’re delighted with how they have turned out, especially with our new logo on the front cover.

“We’d like to thank all the people who took part in the project for their hard work and hope everyone who gets a copy will be as pleased with them as we are.”

Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Partnership said: “This annual event continues to go from strength to strength, and is clear evidence of the commitment that everyone involved has towards making sure that the voices of people with a learning disability and family carers are heard, and that their views are both respected and taken into account.”

For more information, call 01896 840200 or email LDS.admintasks@borders.scot.nhs.uk