Brain I.A.C. -Brain Injury Awareness Campaign: BrainIAC visit to Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee (PPC)

16 members of BrainIAC (including 2 of our witnesses) and a few other friends took the train or bus across to Edinburgh Waverley where most of us had arranged to meet – we made our way to the Parliament Building at the east end of Canongate, had something from the café for lunch, collected our passes/tickets for the hearing, and were in good time for the PPC session that started in Committee Room 2 at 2pm. There were 2 petitions the PPC had to deal with before evidence was heard on our BrainIAC petition – but this gave us the chance to see how the Committee operates.

HelenM, the petitioner, and as someone who has an ABI, started off our BrainIAC evidence very well with her brief (3min) statement, summarising our petition and our case; then MSP Paul Martin, who has previously lent his support to BrainIAC, gave his perspective, and thereafter there was a Question & Answer session that involved both our other witnesses:

Christine Flannery (not a BrainIAC member) – but as she is involved with the MCN in recording provision of brain injury services in the 14 Scottish Health Board areas, she was well able to provide facts and figures, and respond to queries the PPC asked;

Mark Ziervogel – one of our BrainIAC Carers who also expertly explained his perspective of problems with services including the postcode lottery and age-related issues.

You can watch the Committee proceedings on 9th September on Video by CLICKING HERE (The BrainIAC section starts about 1hr 13mins into, and lasts for about 25mins of, the 3-hr session!)

Summary of Committee’s Opinion and Proposed Actions:

The PPC seemed impressed by the fact that there is a need for action on this issue, and they felt they could do something about it;

They would write to the Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and ask her to respond;

They would seek more info from Directors of Social Work, Headway, Momentum, Health Boards, Princess Royal Trust for Carers, Scottish Acquired Brain Injury Managed Clinical Network, Scottish Head Injury Forum, and other interested parties.

Click LINK HERE to see the Committee's Summary of its intended actions.

Conclusion

With our petition having got off to a very encouraging start, you can appreciate that our group (most of whom appear in the pics) were feeling very positive as we made our ways back to the bus and train.