IT is a small coastal community in the south west of Scotland with a population counted in hundreds rather than thousands – but a care in the community initiative it pioneered more than 20 years ago is being held up as a model that other parts of Scotland can follow.

Ballantrae Rural Initiative Care in the Community (BRICC) was established 22 years ago to address the lack of support for predominantly frail and elderly people who wanted to maintain their independence and stay in their own homes for as long as possible. Since then it has developed into a care agency run by a volunteer board of directors, providing personal and social care and domestic help. It has more than 30 part and full-time staff who work with social workers, medical professionals and families, as well as providing ongoing training.

Funding has come mostly from donations over the years, but BRICC also runs a charity shop, which doubles as its headquarters and base for various activities, meetings and entertainment. By 2020, the group hopes to open an adjacent site as a care home.

BRICC director Teresa MacIntyre became involved with the initiative around two years ago when her own mother died.

The former nurse told The National the thinking behind BRICC could work in other parts of the country.

“There really was no support for frail and elderly people in the area and it was decided that something had to be done about that,” she said. “We were turned down for lottery funding but we kept on working. When I first started I wrote to local landowners, because we have quite a lot of estates around the area, and one of them has been helping us for a long time but increased his annual amount and gave us a lump sum.

“We raised around £40,000 from the landowners and we’ve applied for funding from Dunhill Medical Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation. But the wind farm money was a real boost for us – they’ve given us around £250,000 through Carrick Futures – and we got a Scottish Land Fund grant that let us buy the property that’s going to be the nursing home.

“That’s going to be demolished and rebuilt because it was cheaper that way, but it’s right next to our main building with the thrift shop, so it’s ideally placed.

“We’ve had [Health Secretary] Jeane Freeman down to visit and she pointed us in the right direction towards funding avenues.”

MacIntyre added: “We had hoped to have this initiative raised in the Scottish Parliament, because there’s no reason at all why it couldn’t be replicated in similar communities across Scotland.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Over the past decade a significant amount of work and investment has gone into supporting older people and people with disabilities to live well in their own homes for longer.

“Therefore we appreciate that services like those offered by BRICC have a vital role in helping people to maintain their independence at home or in a homely setting.

“As set out in the Scottish Budget this week, we are increasing our package of investment in social care and health care integration to exceed £700 million in 2019-20, underlining our commitment to support older people and disabled people and recognising the important role unpaid carers play.”