MSOPC – the story so far!

We have been in existence since 2004.  We are now a company limited by  guarantee and hopefully very shortly now we shall become a fully registered charity.

From our beginnings with a small Steering Committee of lay people, we have been in discussions with many organisations in Mid Sussex in order to extend the sphere of our Council.  Some have agreed to join our Committee.  Currently we have representatives from AgeUK, Mears Home Improvements,  the U3A, as well as local parish councils. We are affiliated to the National Pensioners Convention nationally and when funds allow representatives of MSOPC attend their annual conference in Blackpool.  We learn a lot from networking with representatives of organisations similar to our own from all over the country.  We also arrange to attend other organisations’ committee meetings with the objective of promoting MSOPC to all interested older people in Mid Sussex.  Our Secretary has been appointed as a Trustee to the Board of the CVS(South).

From the start we have been involved in consultation on the many and various so-called health reforms across the county, including most recently the closure of Clayton Ward.  Sadly, we lost that battle but we did manage to ensure that certain alternative services were in place before the ward finally closed, and after a lot of effort we also managed to secure a shared care ward for Alzheimic patients requiring hospitalisation for a specific acute illness, so that there are nurses in this dedicated ward who are trained in the care of people with Alzheimer’s.

Over the last few years we have been very fortunate to obtain some substantial grants from bodies who have been impressed with the work we are doing, which has enabled us to hold public meetings on a variety of subjects — including will-making, power of attorney, health and social care, as well as some “fun” subjects such as two Christmas parties where an ex-Vernon girl talked about her life in showbiz, and a local entertainer-duo gave  us an insight into a Victorian Christmas — as well as improving the quality of our Newsletter, which is now highly in demand.  Just recently, thanks to a grant from our local district council, we show-cased those activities that are available to older people, either culturally or physically, and this event was attended by some of our local councillors.

Also very recently, we have been fortunate to secure a grant that enables us to employ a part-time Community Development Worker (Anita Wright) whose duty it is to go out there and meet pensioners right across Mid Sussex. We feel most fortunate to have Anita on our team.

MSOPC has become an organisation very much to be listened to.

Biographies

We thought you would like to know a little about the people who make up the MSOPC Committee. We start off with our Chairman, Barbara Baldwin.

Barbara spent most of her working life in Senior Personnel and Training Management roles for major multinational companies. She specialised in Employment Law and Industrial Relations. After retirement she worked as an independent consultant offering support and advice to small companies on Human Resource matters. She also lectured on employment law and management training matters. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Work apart, she says she is blessed with a wonderful family of a son and daughter and three beautiful and very energetic grandchildren. Her interests include art, painting, social and local history, and travel. Her favourite places of interest are Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, Chartwell, Westerham, Kent and the South Downs. As far as travel is concerned, her favourite countries to visit are France, Austria, Italy and China.

In earlier days her vountary community work extended to many years’ involvement as a volunteer in youth work, which was very challenging but also highly rewarding. Her main voluntary work now is the development of the Mid Sussex Older People’s Council (MSOPC).

She thinks that the best place in the world to live is Sussex, England.

Then we come to our Secretary, Elisabeth, who has this to say:

“I trained as a translater but soon tired of that — very boring — and very early in life became a freelance verbatim reporter, a love affair with a profession that I had for the next almost 50 years.  My work took me from the various crown courts in England, the Old Bailey, the Royal Courts of Justice Appeal Court, Hansard (both Commons and Lords) and ultimately as a conference reporter both in the UK and Europe, and also travelling the world to such far flung and exotic places as Venezuela, Japan and Zimbabwe.  I worked for the United Nations in Geneva and Rome, and also on the inquiries into the Piper Alpha and King’s Cross disasters.  Technology developed and for the last ten years of my working life I used my skills to provide sub-titles for deafened adults — not so much travel but immensely rewarding.

I managed to find time to get married to my wonderful Len — also a founder member of MSOPC — had a family and now have some beautiful grandchildren who really keep me on my toes.  I am proud to say that I also did an Open University course in social sciences and am proud to  be able, at a very late stage in my life, to put the letters B.Sc after my name!

Treasurer Pauline tells us that she started out along her career path as a window dresser/sales assistant until, at the age of 18, nursing called (she liked the frilly hats).  Having completed her training she then worked as a staff nurse and then a sister in acute areas.  When her second child arrived she worked as a district nurse, but after a period in the community and with her third daughter expected she then took a break.

She and her husband, Peter, then bought a large house and commenced fostering.  They fostered 18 children in all and usually had a family of 10.  She became very creative at mealtimes and birthdays were so regular that her baking skills improved no end.  When her own youngest daughter started school, so did Pauline.  Having left school with no qualifications she joined the Open University and did a foundation course in social sciences eventually leading her to read psychology on a full-time basis.  During this spell she worked with social services and Age Concern doing voluntary visiting of older people who lived alone.  Once finished, she worked for the benevolent arm of the Masonic Lodge in one of their nursing homes and became deeply involved with care of the elderly.  She finished her career as matron, then director, of nursing homes, also providing home care.

She is emphatic in her belief that being old does not mean being cast out and expects that dignity and individual care should be provided for all older people.

Terry Reilly, our council tax and pensions guru, is, as usual, brief and to the point.  He has this to say:  “I served an apprenticeship in electrical engineering in the north of England, moving south to install the equipment.  I then worked in the insurance industry until I retired.  My hobbies are that I play golf and drink beer!”