Going the Extra Mile

Posted by on 22 September 2011 | 0 Comments

With no relatives of her client living in Wellington, Anne arranged for BNZ staff who each year donate two days of their time to worthy community causes, to assist with packing up her client’s home of the last 13 years. On the chosen day two WCA staff, two of Anne’s family members and four BNZ staff helped to pack and store her client’s lifetime of accumulated treasures.

The move was made easier by another of Anne’s initiatives; she had also approached NZ Movers of Wingate who kindly donated a large quantity of storage cartons and sticky tape to help pack her clients home safely.

Another contact of Anne’s kindly offered to store her client’s possessions in her garage until such time as he was well enough to remove them.

 Anne’s client is now in Wesleyhaven Village’s Deckston Rest Home where he is recovering in a safe and caring environment. He fully intends to return to more independent living when he heals and has his eyes on one of Wesleyhaven’s  nearby rental villa’s.

Anne works with Wesley Community Action  providing in-home support for older clients who wish to retain their independence while living in their own home. Her client is an 81 year old man who retains a pride in living independently, yet also requires the maximum level of home support in order to allow him to do this.

Over the year and a half Anne has been visiting her client at least once a week, while further visits from Wesley’s Team of volunteers provides assistance in getting her client to hospital and doctors appointments. Another team of careers visit him up to 21 hours per week, providing additional assistance with cleaning and meals.

“When I first started seeing him, his immediate concerns were around the payment of his bills, so we set up a series of Direct Debits and Auto Payments to manage his finances,” recalls Anne.

More recently her work has involved finding alternative accommodation for her client and liaising with health practitioners to help restore her client to good health.

As Anne says; “Going the extra mile is just part of the job”