In 1976 we moved to New Zealand with 2 little boys. (Time prior is relatively boring). Our daughter was born 3 years later, with 3 children my time was busy as a stay at home Mum plus working night shifts for the NZ Police converting criminal records onto the first ever computer tapes.
When the children were of age and all at school I returned to work.
One of my passions is disabilities. I was interviewed and accepted for a supervisory role working for a big government funded agency. This was the only agency that provided support services for people with disabilities and the agencies were throughout NZ.
This facility provided work skills, education and social skills training. We also contracted out for work, our clients were trained, completed set tasks and the money received was paid to them in a weekly wage.
My first day….I was very excited…..and rather nervous.
Contract work was set up and as we had a deadline, all hands were on deck.
I was feeling quite relaxed, walking around getting to know our clients, helping out, sometimes chatting or sitting down working alongside them.
Then there was a slight minor disruption, one of the clients jumped up and started crying, rocking backwards and forwards. It appeared a rather cheeky Down’s syndrome had whipped his beloved cushion from behind him and had claimed possession. I went to ask for it back, well that wasn’t going to happen! He ran outside laughing.
My client rocked harder and cried louder, he was Hep A and by now I was needing to dodge the spittle. Everyone was becoming unsettled, the neat stacks of little plastic bags containing a Tararua cheese promotion were now being frisbee’d high into the air….everywhere! When I turned back to the table to control that, a very regal mature lady had decided to pop out her right breast. Gulp. I bent over and quietly said “ladies don’t display their breasts in public and best to tuck it away”. She complied then said to the young man beside her that she had one on the other side and promptly hauled that one out to show him. The noise was escalating, my client was still sobbing, meanwhile they were all shrieking grabbing each others’ stacks of bags and flinging them and I was developing one mighty mammoth of a migraine.
I looked around for assistance and there was literally NO ONE there! I made myself less conspicuous and when the pillow thief came back inside I grabbed the pillow, gave it back to its rightful owner and told everyone we all had to start cleaning up. (and yes the girls were safely tucked away). When I went home, I told Pete about my disastrous experience, expecting some form of sympathy only to be greeted with side clutching screams of laughter. That was my introduction to working with disabilities….and I loved it!!!! Stayed there managing 2 facilities for around 17 years. Whilst there I set up a continuing education program for people with disabilities at the local TAFE college and for the first time they were able to extend their education, social skills and work ethics.
One afternoon in my office I was catching up on case notes when the door swung open and the fraud squad burst in.
It had come to their attention that a staff member from the IHC was signing off on lots of individual applications for funding. It was rather amusing to see their faces when my big boss informed them that yes that was correct, however the funding went straight to the college to cover student fees for a course they were attending.
The courses were a success and we ran them for a number of years. During that time I joined as a board member on the TAFE college as well as the Hospital board. I studied teacher training and socialisation.
As time went on I was feeling disillusioned with the dispersion of funding and felt our clients could be better serviced so I left and set up my own supported employment business. One of my staff also left the agency and joined me.
This was NOT well received at all and I was told, I was going into competition against them with the idea almost laughable. I replied “well I believe competition is always good” and it’s just a complementing of services. For the first time our clients have a choice.
My colleague and I worked well together building up a good clientele list, with so many of my previous clients transferring over to our business. Their parents were extremely supportive, even though they all received personal visits from the IHC with the undertones of that “when”, not “if” we didn’t succeed, they most likely couldn’t come back with their son / daughter and they would have no support at all.
The business flourished, we were frugal and managed on one very small fortnightly payment per client which was only available to an agency that provided support.
I was approached by the local Special Needs School and my colleague and I worked in with the headmistress and teachers to implement work experience for the students coming up to leaving age. We trained the teacher aides to work alongside the students providing individual employment support for both client and the employment placement staff. We always worked out a task analysis that would meet both our clients and the students strengths and we provided training and on-going continuing support.
The increase in client numbers meant taking on extra staff. A few more years had gone past and we were being recognised by other agencies that provided various support, eg: social skills, supported living, recreational integration etc. and we were invited to work alongside their multidisciplinary teams.
One of our clients was deaf and it became obvious there was a real need for support for the deaf community. I spent a number of years learning sign language whilst working voluntarily with the deaf community. This was in the form of translating at job interviews, doctors / specialists, appointments, wherever they needed help etc. One young lady told me she wanted to train and be a councillor for the deaf. Could I accompany her and translate the lectures. I did this and found it very interesting.
So I enrolled myself to also study counselling and psychology, feeling the skills could hopefully assist my own approach and communication within the community.
A couple more years went past and then there came an eventful day which changed our whole existence.
We received a phone call from the Disabilities section of the Government requesting a meeting with us. Two men in suits came to visit (yes suits) with instructions from the then Government Minister For Disabilities.
We were told we had to close down, we were given a time frame in which to do so but first….could we please explain to them how we could run a successful business on the “smell of an oily rag?” (their words”). It had come to the Ministers attention that clients were leaving the IHC (for which he was the front person) walking across to our agency and we were embarrassing him. It had to stop and if it didn’t, they would change government legislation to cancel the only small fortnightly payment that we received. We would not win against them.
They believed we had no option but to ask for all clients to be accepted back to their fold.
We had a close rapport with a supported living agency that had very similar philosophies to ours. We approached with the idea of merging and providing a holistic service to all people with disabilities. Supported residential living, recreational integration and supported employment and continuing education. They welcomed the idea with open arms and it’s still going today. The Government didn’t win.
We returned back home to the Sunshine Coast soon after that and I changed my focus of employment.
I was a case manager for people of varying ages with mental health who were at risk and disengaged from society.
I worked with them on a 2 year contract to reconnect them with family or to re-engage back into the community. This included mental breakdowns / drug / alcohol dependency / mental health issues / trauma / illnesses etc. I worked in this field for about 7 years. The agency I worked for ran a volunteer programme called Street Angels - a support network for underage youth at risk and on the street. I was a team member volunteering of an evening. I loved doing this, the kids were great and always greeted us warmly. We provided information on free accommodation, counselling, courses, skills training, hot coffee / tea/ milo and biscuits and most importantly…a listening ear. We attended all dance parties, NYE events, race days, any community or council events - many a time tying back hair, massaging backs and holding sick bags. We “trawled” Mooloolaba, Alex, the Spit and set up a station every Friday and Saturday night.
I resigned from this position as we made plans to go working / travelling around Australia as “Recycled Teenagers”.
However we needed to return home after 14 months as our daughter was very ill.
Back to work I went with my last years prior to retirement spent working in secure dementia / lockdown and community assisted nursing.
Now I’m retired I don’t know when I found the time to work!! Oh and I do still volunteer every Wednesday with Orange Sky doing the washing for our homeless friends.
Cheers
Vonnie Thomson
Unit 93.
As appeared in the February edition of the Bulletin
