1 June 2011

PAMIS welcomes opening of new Changing Places toilet at Camperdown Park

PAMIS, the University of Dundee-based charity that campaigns for better facilities for people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, have welcomed the opening of a new Changing Places-standard toilet at Camperdown Park.

Service users from PAMIS’s White Top Centre and their carers joined representatives of the Leisure and Communities Department of Dundee City Council for the official reopening of the Craws Nest toilets on Wednesday, 1st June. These toilets are newly refurbished to the standards that PAMIS campaigns for.

The facility now contains an adult-sized height adjustable changing bench, an overhead hoist and enough space for a wheelchair and two carers, as well as other features that make them a more pleasant place to visit.

PAMIS Information Officer Julie Taylor praised the local authority, saying, "PAMIS is delighted that Dundee City Council has provided these fully accessible toilets that will allow disabled people and their families to enjoy Camperdown Park along with the rest of the population".

PAMIS and learning disability charity MENCAP are leading the Changing Places, Changing Lives campaign, and they - along with almost 20 other organisations - form the Changing Places Consortium.

The campaign aims to ensure that there is at least one public toilet built to the Changing Places standard in every town centre with a population greater than 15,000 and within each new public building such as shopping centres, concert halls, railway stations etc.

Without Changing Places toilets people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, as well as people with physical disabilities such as spinal injuries, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy are forced to stay at home or their family carers have to resort to changing them on dirty toilet floors.

PAMIS aims to ensure that people with profound and multiple learning disabilities are valued both as individuals and in the contribution they make to the community, and that:

• they should receive all the support needed to realise their full potential;
• their right to a full life shaped by personal choice, abilities and needs underlies all provision and policy affecting their lives; and
• the knowledge and experience of family carers is recognised, and that their views are fully taken into account in service development.

Information on Changing Places toilets can be found at www.changing-places.org or www.pamis.org.uk.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277