Rosemary Trustam was the founding CEO of Integrate (Preston & Chorley) Ltd. Also the late publisher of Community Living magazine, a relentless, unstoppable campaigner, an indomitable and determined fighter for the rights of people with Learning Disabilities, a force to be reckoned with and a real hero of the Learning Disability Community, who saw the magazine as an important part of the mission to achieve equality and inclusion. She was irresistible, and utterly focused on the cause. Incredibly kind, and, one of the most selfless people you could meet. She always had time for individuals or families who came to her for advice, or help or support, or just encouragement. She was a great leader and mentor for many within the sector, ensuring with the sharing of her tremendous knowledge, her links to the University and her Practice Educator role, that her personal values and the values of Social Work were passed down, instilled in many and live on. She retained all the best traditions of the involved, concerned social worker, a type now sadly in short supply.
Rose Trustam was also a valued director of CASCAIDr Trading Ltd, the trading arm of CASCAIDr, the specialist social care legal advice charity, with its profits. Her input helped the charity to build a firm basis for growth, before Covid entered our consciousness. The pandemic meant that the charity had to reshape its advice offer, even to survive, and focus merely on Triage – a free steer for people with legal issues, rather than full-on casework, whether for free, or for a low-cost charge.
Rose’s untimely and sad death meant that we cannot share our exciting news with her that CASCAIDr will be re-opening to chargeable work once again with an operations manager in charge, in February 2022.
But in celebration of that news, and her own life and work, Belinda Schwehr, CASCAIDr’s CEO, will present a training event on people’s rights to adult social care, in Rose’s memory, including a session on what the liberty protection safeguards and the promised ‘cap’ on care costs may mean for people with learning disabilities and other life-long conditions.
