We need a modern day 'adult training centre' like Wick used to have
The Real Mackay by Dan Mackay
Who remembers the Indian Summer of 1976? I could hardly forget.
It was the year I left school and got my first job. I had grand plans for a commission in the Royal Navy but, alas, those ambitions could not be fulfilled.
Instead, I duly reported one scorching afternoon to the brand new Adult Training Centre in Wick’s airport industrial estate. I was to have an interview for the post of social work aide, part of the government’s job creation scheme.
Having not long returned from a family wedding in Glasgow, I was resplendent in a smart three-piece suit, shirt and tie, the whole works. Under the searing sun I’d stopped off at Gibby Fraser’s shop in Coach Road on my way to the interview and bought a cooling ice cream cone.
I like to be punctual but imagine my surprise when I was immediately ushered in. Before I knew it I was having to navigate my way through the ordeal of an interview with the aforementioned but now rapidly melting ice cream cone in hand…
My new pair of specs I had just acquired – and the reason I failed my Navy examination – were quickly steaming up. It was a nightmare scenario. Yet, somehow I got the job!
That was 45 years ago almost exactly. And here we are today enjoying another long dry summer. No sign of a hose pipe ban though…
The adult training centre enjoyed much success in the town under the leadership of Elsa McDonald, its first, steering manager. It provided essential day care services to adults with learning disabilities, many of whom had been discharged from institutional hospital settings like Craig Phadrig, in Inverness.
A wide range of meaningful work-related activities were undertaken in the centre’s huge workshop, its craft rooms and garden. Life skills were taught to the trainees, as they were originally known, in its kitchen and laundry areas. Over and above all this, a full programme of leisure, recreation and sporting activities was also scheduled. Annual holidays to places like Butlins were a popular highlight.
I was employed in various learning disability settings in Caithness and Sutherland for the next 22 years of my working life. I enjoyed every moment of it. I never felt like I was going to work. But I moved on in 1998 to a post as a care inspector from which I retired last year.
And now I have time to reflect on the good old days. How I wish I could turn the clock back!
I always hankered to reopen the centre whose services were closed about 12 or so years ago. To some extent it had been a victim of its own success. Some clients got jobs, many their own homes, a few were married or attended college and, sadly, some client’s associated medical conditions also took their toll…
In all my extensive inspection travels throughout the Highlands and Islands, I never came across a service quite like it. It was not only a centre of excellence, it was undoubtedly a therapeutic community.
Now we are emerging, falteringly, from a global pandemic. And now, just like there was a real need back in the ‘70s, today we need a place of recovery that opens its doors to all members of society. A place where we can feel safe, where we can learn from and support one another regardless of age, disability or mental health. A place to do meaningful pursuits that make a difference.
A centre of excellence for a new generation and to, once again, serve the community.