Posts by Hilary Stace
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Lovely, thanks. I had heard about it so nice to see your photos. The dandelions look amazing on that hillside. How long is the sculpture walk there for?
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Great book thanks Russell and I hope Jimmy’s short video on autism goes far and wide. Every person with autism is different but there are also certain similarities including parents needing support. So that Autism in New Zealand Facebook page is a great resource (and thanks to Kris for moderating it). I wish it had been around when we were starting out. At that time the NASC referred us to Autism NZ and gave the name of a real person from the local committee. That committee was very supportive and useful for information sharing but I don’t think such committees exist any more. There are several autism specific Facebook pages but this one particularly is wonderful and very NZ specific. Of course you have to have access to a computer, and preferably broadband, which not all parents do, and local libraries can have very expensive charges.
Yes, Russell, school libraries still exist in many schools. No targeted funding from central government, so dependent on school budgets, but many schools realise the worth of libraries. School librarians have a professional organisation called SLANZA. Currently they are fighting the National Library’s plans to stop sending out real books to schools for specific teaching projects.
Link to petition
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/libraries
Also a Labour Party one on same topic
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Joe, I'm not sure where the linking of psychopaedic nurses and concentration camp guards came from, but certainly not from me. As I said I have talked to some former nurses and also a former Kimberley Medical Superintendent and the local DHB medical officer (both paediatricians for which I have a great deal of respect).
I also acknowledge there are people currently working in disability support who should not be allowed near vulnerable people, but that is a separate, ongoing issue.
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Access: Some aspects of New Zealand's…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Joe, I apologise for that assertion. I have heard it repeated several times by members of People First, and had no reason to doubt it, but never any evidence either. That site had a century or so of various institutions and government programmes and who knows what went on there in earlier centuries. So I take back the allegation that there are unmarked graves from the Kimberley era.
As a person interested in disability and a trained historian I know that you can't judge earlier times by the standards of the present. The thorough story of the deinstitutionalisation of Kimberley by the Donald Beasley Institute shows that although there were disagreements over aims and processes, families, staff and many of the residents at Kimberley were of course working and making decisions and judgements for the best of intentions. I know some family members who fought the closure and then became champions of it. So ideas can change over time. I have also talked to former psychopaedic nurses who did their very best with the resources they had and had great respect for their patients. Robert Martin's recent autobiography notes his interactions with many good and helpful staff.
But I can still criticise the idea of institutionalisation - whereby society decides who is 'normal' and who does not deserve the right to independence and agency so needs to have these choices denied them - and be vigilant about re-insitutionalisation. I also fight against the poor resourcing available to disabled people living in the community and their families.
But I also acknowledge there is still a need for happy, safe and temporary respite for many children and families in the Horowhenua region so good luck to those setting up the new service in the building at the edge of the site.
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Rare new data on caring http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/65508665/Unpaid-caring-hits-household-incomes
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Capture: Peak Pohutukawa, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I saw that place. Very pleasant along that Collingwood waterfront, but not really a swimming beach.
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Queen Charlotte Drive, just a few kilometres from the ferry.
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Main highway 6 between Nelson and Picton at Pelorus Bridge. Café has good toilets, coffee, home baking, big icecreams and sandflies.
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Capture: From the Road, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
It does not appear to be a command, despite the skull and crossbones flag. The eels seem pretty happy and docile.
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Collingwood.
