Dementia centre users upset by service changes in Stourbridge
A meeting was told a redeveloped service at the Crystal Gateway centre in Stourbridge meant day service will cease and users will instead select activities individually.
Dementia sufferers and their families had ‘the rug pulled from under their feet’ after changes decided behind closed doors according to a Dudley councillor.
At a meeting on August 3, members of the authority’s Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee were told a redeveloped service at the Crystal Gateway centre in Stourbridge meant day service will cease and users will instead select activities individually.
Campaigners won a battle to save the Brettell Lane centre from closure in 2025 when a full council meeting unanimously supported a motion including a resolution to retain Crystal Gateway and set up a group to inform how it can continue to provide dementia provision.
Cllr Andrew Tromans says he first found out about the latest changes at the centre from concerned users and is not impressed with the answers he got at the scrutiny committee meeting.
Cllr Tromans said: “There is a sense that this has been done away from scrutiny and they have progressed with their plan without proper democratic oversight.
“Services will continue in some form or another but the people that rely on that centre feel the rug has been taken from underneath their feet.
“The way this has been done lacks a certain amount of transparency.”
Dudley’s director of adult social care, Emma Matthews, told the scrutiny meeting: “That’s not a reduced offer, it’s just a changed offer and the way it’s recorded on their support plan will change.
“I know that’s been confusing for people, it has been explained but it is a complicated thing to understand.
“We will continue to explain that and work that through existing clients so they can see the benefit of the new offer and why we are moving to it.”
During the meeting, Cllr Tromans quoted from an email he received from a centre user which said: “These users are upset along with their family members who go there for a break knowing that the staff will take over and interact with them giving the families a bit of a break.”
Ms Matthews told the meeting the council had listened to service users and was committed to keeping the building.
Ms Matthews added: “The other thing they said they liked were the services, the activities that tend to be provided by external organisations not ourselves.
“So a lot of the things that we were doing weren’t really things they enjoyed or wanted to be part of.
“They liked the stuff we brought in and that was what they wanted more of.”
Despite the explanation, Cllr Tromans remained critical of how the changes were carried out.
He said: “It’s going to cause upset whenever you have got to make a difficult decision and handle a change message, it’s best to be transparent and explain exactly what’s going on.
“I don’t think it serves anybody to be coy about it, I don’t think the council have done themselves any favours by trying to do this quietly.”
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