Camp Mother
I was just coming to the end of my yearlong post grad papers.
Our final assignment was to write about how to increase access and engagement. I’d been learning the ropes from my predecessor and felt that this community family health service, could do with a couple of tweaks.
I came up with the idea of setting up a Facebook group, knowing everyone’s on social media these days. I’d often witnessed the glazed eyes of parents at the end of their baby consultations. Wait, what? That was often when we’d launch into essential health promotion stuff.
I’d also seen countless unread leaflets fall out of the baby books. As a relative newbie to motherhood, I was majorly guilty of that myself. I asked a few mothers in their appointments if they felt that a FB group might be useful and they all said yes, and so it begun!
In that rural population I found many triggers resulting in higher levels of post-natal depletion associated with their social isolation.
That year, I set up the closed Facebook group for these incredibly stoic parents, to supply electronic resources and support: It resulted in a significant reduction in mood and anxiety issues and a much higher engagement in the service.
That virtual village enabled many parents to benefit from the extended family of support from myself and the other parents. I did most of their appointment booking via messenger portals, reminding them 24hrs ahead. I was able to link parent buddies in previously hard to reach valleys. People would flick messages often starting, “Hey Nicky, is this normal”?
Some well-seasoned colleagues suggested, I might be making a rod for my back. However, I strongly believed the results would speak for themselves, and they really did. The rest you could say was history in the making. I even got a ‘health innovation award’ for child and adolescent health from the regional District Health Board.
Fast forward a few months and I was then approached about setting up a school-based health service (SBHS) for all year nine students. This now aligned with current New Zealand practice for deciled schools.
By then I was fully immersed in PG study and nearing the end of my Master of Nursing. For my final double-paper, I undertook a clinical project to research and implement this psycho-social assessment ‘snapshot’. This entailed the design and implementation and a new extended reach in the proposed SBHS service.
This significantly paved the way to extend and support a healthier start for all of the students into adult life. Recognizing the importance of their family/whanau. Role modelling positive, healthy behaviour as a key to achieving better long-term outcomes. And ultimately it resulted in the re-scoping of my role as a specialist in 0-18 child and parental health.
Two years after I had fully immersed back into returning to work post children. I also undertook additional training in the “Circle of Security” and ‘Incredible Years’ programs as licensed facilitators.
This allowed me to run parenting classes, as early intervention programs for all caregivers.
Ultimately my role evolved into what became a parent/child-initiated service based on relationships and robust engagement. Much of that was influenced by my own personal reflections and lived experience of being a rural mother of premature twins.
Formal timings and strict structured interactions don’t always reflect the specific needs of parents, infants, or children. Historically, there’s been less access to maternity services and of course there’s never really a good time to ring a newborns parent.
Allowing caregivers to interact digitally gave more flexibility to facilitate their individual needs. And it gave them a ‘go to’ health professional.
So, I became ‘Camp Mother’ so to speak.
Rural settings, particularly during calving and lambing highlights how difficult it was for many parents to leave the farm. These areas often rely on itinerant farm workers, moving on yearly all over the country. Some of these families are multicultural immigrants, learning a brand-new life and country.
Sadly, some of my work also involved collaborating with the police as well as many other professionals. We had a circle of trust between, health, education and policing services, one I leaned on, supported and really appreciated. There will always be families with mental health struggles, addictions, family violence and child protection. These parents need help and are always hurting to. Being rural often means flying under everyone’s radar, until you find them, and they really need intensive wraparound services too.
Walk a mile in every man’s shoes!
I do still work in perinatal health, alongside an incredible medical specialist.
