I HAVE always considered Inverclyde to be a caring place. Our communities are close-knit and people take an interest in each other. 

This week saw the 25th anniversary of Your Voice – the Inverclyde Community Care Forum – which has built up a reputation of working with local statutory, voluntary and private providers as well as national organisations to ensure local people are involved in decisions that affect them. 

Your Voice encourages people to get involved to avoid the pitfalls in life that can lead to health inequalities and social exclusion.

By working together, they have shown how local people can have control of their own lives and will be heard in the planning and development of local services and support. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with Your Voice for their hard work over the year and for their continued dedication and commitment in the years to come. 

Next week sees the launch of a new public health approach to palliative care. 

Compassionate Inverclyde – a partnership between Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and Ardgowan Hospice – is an ambitious programme which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people facing potentially life-limiting illness, dying, death and bereavement. 

It is probably the most difficult and traumatic time that any one individual, family or circle of friends will endure and it is not just the emotional impact that needs to be addressed. 

There can be real physical and physiological symptoms associated with the stress and uncertainty a devastating diagnosis can trigger.

By working together as a community in caring for our own family, friends, neighbours and indeed strangers who are at the end of life at home or in a hospital we can really make a positive difference. 

There is also a role for local businesses and employers to have compassionate and supportive life-limiting and bereavement policies in place for staff. 

It is important that we as a community tackle the misconceptions about cancer and other potentially life-limiting diseases to lessen the impact of dying, death and bereavement. 

People will be supported and counselled, positive attitudes towards people with life-limiting illnesses will be promoted and young people taught to understand illness and respect death as an important part of life but not to fear it. 

There is a huge amount of work that goes on in Inverclyde to support the most vulnerable in our communities. This new approach to palliative care is another vital piece in the jigsaw.