\n Ms MacCulloch described the fight as a \u201cDavid versus Goliath\u201d situation, filled with \u201cbureaucracy and box-ticking\u201d to put essential care packages in place, with dementia paid “lip service” across the whole system.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe system is supposed to be there to meet our needs, but our needs have to fit in with the structure of care that they [authorities and service providers] are willing to provide,\u201d she explained.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut if our needs don\u2019t fit in with that, then it falls back on us as unpaid carers, while trying to get creative about how we can look after ourselves at the same time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201c\u201cI don’t have the energy to\u00a0pick fights with the system. I\u2019ve had to find my own solutions. I was banging my head against a brick wall, literally screaming into pillows, and nobody was there for me.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen I need it, there\u2019s really not anything there to help. The system pretends to care. But it\u2019s still them against us but it\u2019s all show. and it is the charities who are absolutely there to provide home \u2013 without that we\u2019d have virtually nothing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The frustration from Ms MacCulloch is palpable. Not because she is a carer \u2013 but because she does not feel the system is there to help when things get tough.\n<\/p>\n
\n Read more:\n<\/p>\n
\n She has been a full-time carer since February 2024 and was part-time prior to that, since July 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n There are carers who come into assist with personal care for her mother but as the condition progresses, it is often unsuitable, leaving Ms MacCulloch to pick up the pieces.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI try to keep up with whatever mum needs from me at any one time and it has made me have to find adaptable parts of myself that I didn\u2019t know were there. You\u2019re living in the minute, you\u2019re in the hour.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can be up through the night, I can be all consumed through the day. We have a personal care visit in the morning and at the moment that has just gone awry because as mum’s condition develops and progresses, she is not ready to get up for them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNobody speaks about about the emotional toll in caring. We talk about mental health and we talk about physical health but emotional toll is what is a lot of the time creating issues.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can say I am physically health and mental healthy. I\u2019m absolutely fine but I can be a wreck at the end of the day. I can hardly walk up the stairs sometimes. I can collapse into a couch. I can hardly move. That\u2019s the emotional toll weighing down on my physical wellbeing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Lesley MacCulloch. (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n A particular issue that causes anger for Ms MacCulloch is reforms on the right to a break for unpaid carers.\n<\/p>\n
\n The right to a break was introduced through the Care Reform Bill in June 2025, with plans underway to implement it.\n<\/p>\n
\n It allows carers to take sufficient breaks, often through respite, and places a legal duty on local authorities to put support in place.\n<\/p>\n
\n But caring organisations have warned there has to be significant investment and resource invested.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI feel a lot of contempt, if I\u2019m honest,\u201d Ms MacCulloch said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cPoliticians have decided that I can be approved to have a break. I look at that and imagine why that\u2019s even a conversation. I am a human being. I\u2019m the same as them. What an absolute waste of time and money.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHow can a politician sit there are reasonably justify, and ell me, that I\u2019m entitled to a break. Of course I\u2019m entitled to a break.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSomeone has to come in here and assesses whether I am worthy of a break, worthy of more help. It\u2019s shameful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: \u201cIt is so lonely sitting there at 10 or 11pm with nowhere to go, nobody to speak to, nobody who understands me.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI would love to have a government that really cared and actually trusted me. A government that wanted to truly, deeply listen in order to understand, and then act authentically to create what is really needed out here.\u00a0I\u2019m appalled at where we’re at in Scotland in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ms MacCulloch described the fight as a \u201cDavid versus Goliath\u201d situation, filled with \u201cbureaucracy and box-ticking\u201d to put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-327170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}