Today is Changing Places Awareness day. Another opportunity to speak about the Changing Places toilets that make our life with Quinns easier. They allow us to get out and about with him and make his life as exciting as possible.
This week I’ve been sharing posts from Changing Places UK about the numbers of Changing Place toilets across the UK. The numbers are shockingly low. There are only 17 in airports, 199 in parks and open spaces and museums, galleries and art centres have 99. Only 123 hospital and medical centres have one out of a total of 1148 and out of the thousands of pubs and restaurants there are 16!
We started raising awareness for these facilities in 2018. For the last 6 years I’ve taken a photo of Quinns and his Big Sister in every one of the facilities we’ve visited. They know the drill!
It is usually with great excitement we try out a new one because each time we know that the world has opened another little bit for Quinns. Our recent visits have included Waverly Station in Edinburgh, Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow and Tebay Services Northbound.
Only four out of the five hospitals across the UK where Quinns has appointments have one. Luckily, it’s one closer to home that doesn’t but luck shouldn’t really come into it when it comes to toilet facilities.
The journey to and from London for hospital appointments is now easier due to the recent investment in Changing Places in service stations. We have a choice of where to stop along the route.
When we’re not travelling, we have our favourite places to go simply because of the toilet. Quinns loves the cinema and swimming so Macrobert Arts Centre and The Peak are our go to local days out. Quinns was delighted to have his drama group’s short film premiere hosted at the Macrobert Arts Centre where his friends were able to be happy and comfortable.
Someone asked me recently whether there were any new Changing Places facilities in our local area. I was sad to say there have been no new ones since our campaigning began. In our entire local authority area, there are only 3 registered and open to the public (Macrobert Arts Centre, The Peak and Blair Drummond Safari Park). There are also ones in the Community hospital, local College and a resource centre bringing the total to 6.
This Changing Places Awareness Day my Wishlist for potential Changing Places facilities includes the Thistles Centre in Stirling, Stirling Castle, Stirling Train Station, the Wallace Monument and Bridge of Allan (which I’m hopeful is happening albeit very slowly).
What’s on your Changing Places wishlist? If you want to find out more about the campaign or find out what you can do to help you’ll find lots more information on the Changing Places UK website
Quinns, trains & changing places 
We would love to see more Arts Venues with Changing Places. Many of the young people who attend Speech Bubble really need to use these facilities – one of the reasons we retain a regular online presence is that we need fully accessible spaces to accommodate our cast and crew and these are still very limited. We would love to see Scotland with changing places in every theatre and cinema so that our young people can enjoy the same arts and social opportunities as their peers.
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That would be wonderful!
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