Care home sparks outrage after 'extremely insulting' advert of young models in 'Halloween style' masks

Safe Hands Support, a day care centre in Stirling, captioned the advert “Betty with her sister Elain”.

Age Scotland demanded an urgent apology, describing the advert as “grotesque” and “extremely insulting”.

The group penned a letter to Safe Hands Support CEO Sylvia Wisna-Collins.

Following Age Scotland’s letter, the advertisement was taken down from the social media platform it was originally shared on.

Age Scotland chief executive Katherine Crawford said: “The grotesque masks are so unrealistic and resemble a Halloween scene as opposed to an advert encouraging older people to use their services for day care.

“We have been campaigning for years to shift negative stereotypes that exists around ageing, so it is really sad to see a care company negatively caricaturing later life.”

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Wisna-Collins also released a statement on Safe Hands Support’s Facebook page.

She explained: “We have been approached by Age Scotland about some photographs we published using people in masks.

“The images were purely to visually show how we can support elderly people, and to give a visual of elderly people utilising our centre.

“As we respect the dignity of our clients we did not use photographs of those who did not wish to be published, hence the reason for using masks on willing friends who understood it was purely for pictorial reasons and not to be seen as derogative.

“There were also no comments made within the posts that could be deemed as derogative, they only described what we were trying to show pictorially.

“If some people have taken offence to this, then please accept our sincere apologies, but please remember we only used this method to demonstrate what we have to offer the community.

“We set up our centre completely at our own cost to give the elderly and people suffering with such illnesses as dementia, Parkinson's disease, learning difficulties or just someone needing companionship along with providing respite for unpaid carers.

“A place they could have fun, companionship with reassurance that they are being cared for in a safe environment by fully trained carers.

“Again if anyone has taken offence, then please accept our sincere apologies, as this was not our intention.”