PAMIS to lead PMLD Awareness Week

Published On Tue 12 May 2015 by Grant Hill

University of Dundee-based charity PAMIS will next week host their first Profound and Multiple Learning Disability (PMLD) Awareness Week.

Events will take place across Scotland as part of the programme, which aims to raise awareness of both the difficulties that people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and their families face and also the ways they can be helped to be more active and valued members of society.

PMLD Awareness Week begins with a mass tweet using the hashtag #SpotlightOnPMLD at 10am on Monday, 18th May. Thereafter the Tayside, Fife, Grampian, Greater Glasgow & Clyde and South Lanarkshire NHS board areas will play host to events ranging from adaptive skiing to multi-sensory storytelling.

“People with PMLD are very special people with distinctive needs,” said PAMIS Chief Executive Jenny Miller. “They are often excluded from community activities that the rest of us take for granted.  With enthusiasm, commitment, some imagination and a 'can-do' approach, people with profound and complex disabilities can be included in leisure and cultural activities.

“It is hoped that by raising awareness in the community of the activities in which people with PMLD can participate, many of the barriers they face will be removed helping them to achieve their rightful place in society.”

PAMIS is the only organisation in Scotland that works solely with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. They provide a range of services and projects and works closely with the Scottish Government on the development of policy and practice.

The organisation was last week nominated in the ‘Cracking Campaign’ category of the 2015 Scottish Charity Awards for its Changing Places, Changing Lives initiative. The campaign aims to ensure 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.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 384768
Mobile: 07854 953277
Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk