IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CUPPA.
20/08/2024
Helen Pulman started her nursing career in the 1960s when nurses trained in the hospitals while also working in the wards. When she moved to District Nursing in Franklin, she worked alongside social workers who were visiting people at home. Their conversations converged on the importance of personal help in the patient’s home.
It didn’t take Helen long to recognise this need, and that it was a growing issue for her beloved Franklin community.
Helen’s first approach was to reach out to the nearest hospital serving the region. "We got in touch with Pukekohe Hospital, but it was taking so long to get going, and the need wasn’t going away, I just thought, let’s have a meeting,” explains Helen.
Not one to be constrained by red tape, Helen suggested that the different groups ‘meet over a cuppa’. That gathering was the foundation of the community organisation known today as Counties Manukau Homecare Trust.
By 1981 the Family Support Centre had been set up to extend essential community services with Counselling, Budgeting, Courses, Friends at Court, and a Stroke Group. "We started the counselling service on the phone, connected to Lifeline Auckland and ran it from the parsonage at the Methodist Church,” Helen continues.
In 1990 the delivery of community services was extended to take care into patients at home, with the Home Care Service set up in a small room at Pukekohe Hospital. The need for in home care grew, with the service increasing rapidly, and by 2006 it was registered as the independent non-profit organisation, Counties Manukau Homecare Service with an appointed Manager and Trainer.
In 2009 CMHT moved to Professional House in Seddon Street, Pukekohe.
Helen has guided this organisation through three challenging decades.
Over her time as Chairperson, Helen has seen the number of clients grow from a handful to up to 1200 people a year, cared for by more than 170 support workers across Franklin. As winter comes to a close this year, 128 support workers are caring for 970 clients. Some of the support workers have been with CMHT for decades; this year several will be celebrating their 25 and 30-year anniversaries with CMHT.
"Right from the start, when qualifications first became available for support workers in 2007, Helen encouraged all of our home care workers and admin team to gain their NZ Certificates in Health and Wellbeing,” says Trudy Biggelaar, Manager of CMHT. "Everyone in the office achieved Level 2, and now over 76% of our support workers are at Level 3 or above. That’s a long-term, ongoing investment that we’re all very proud of.”
The Loneliness Link.
In her nursing days Helen noted that her visit was often the only caring contact that the patient would have with the outside world. "In the beginning, district nurses used to do the personal care as well, showering for example, but then the decision was made to shift that non-medical nursing care to Homecare.” Every day, across Franklin hundreds of Counties Manukau Homecare Support workers take care of the personal needs of the patient; sometimes showering, housework, but most of all, she believes, it’s the human contact.
CMHT cares for people in Manurewa, Papakura, Franklin, reaching across from Port Waikato and Awhitu Peninsular in the west, to Kaiaua in the east, to Tuakau and Te Kauwhata in the south. Support workers and the administration team are also residents of greater Franklin.
Reflecting on the years, Helen says that District nursing opened her eyes to patient care in the home and the need for support, not only to the patient, but also to the carer. "This person generally has no training for the job, but through love and loyalty becomes responsible for the care of their partner or family member.” She underlines the freedom that Homecare provides to enable a member to stay at home within the family, and not have to go into hospital care.
While Helen is handing over the Chairpersonship to Trust member Rae Heatley, her involvement continues with the CNF (Community Network Franklin) Committee, Kidz Social Services Trust committee. She’s Chairperson of the Pukekohe Youth Council and remains on the Counties Manukau Homecare Trust.
Helen also manages to sandwich in work as a Marriage Celebrant (she’s conducted over 65 ‘simple weddings’ in the past 2 years), and a Justice of the Peace, while caring for her husband Ross, 3 married children, 6 grandchildren, and a 3yr old great grandchild.
Her friends at CMHT hope she might also have time for a quiet cup of tea.