Pamper Yourself

or someone else! Pamper yourself

Do you look after a person who has an intellectual disability or autism? All families, whānau and carers need a break to relax and put their feet up.

IHC’s Take A Break With Us programme is open to those caring for someone who has an intellectual disability.

A family can be referred to the programme by anyone – a friend, neighbour or support worker.

You need to be a member of IHC to qualify for Take A Break. Membership costs $5 per year.

If you are eligible, with travel again possible, you can look forward to one or two nights’ free accommodation at a participating Take A Break hotel.

IHC may also be able to help with meals, leisure activities and transportation if needed.

All of a sudden the family were and had a good picnic lunch.” packing into their car and heading to Five years ago, Thomas faced Hawkes Bay for a couple of days of fun the fact that his heart condition at the National Aquarium in Napier and would no longer allow him to work. Splash Planet in Hastings. So he and his wife Chante

Anakin loves anything to do with swapped places. water, so the break was designed to He stayed home to care for their do as many activities involving water as children and Chante went back to possible. full-time work.

Thomas and Chante Kingi, Leisana, Looking back, Thomas has been and Anakin had two nights in a Hastings happy to play the cards he was dealt. motel. It was the family’s first visit to As it turned out Anakin, who was Napier and their first holiday in a motel, only a baby at the time, was to be and they made the most of it. diagnosed with autism and Thomas has

They started early from home in been on hand to provide the support he Palmerston North for the drive to Napier needs. so they could take in the aquarium Anakin was non-verbal until he was before check-in time at the motel in three years old and is now slowly Hastings. gathering words.

“To be honest, we don’t get away that He started school last year. much," says Thomas. “It has basically worked out well,

They got a good deal on tickets to just being able to be there for a lot of Splash Planet and spent the entire day firsts – his first steps, first words. It is at the adventure park, from opening so rewarding just being there to nurture until closing time. and coach him,” Thomas says. “I have

“Our tickets were for full access to little patience and he has got none. We everything that was in the park. Anakin are both learning off each other. He is is a water baby and he just wanted to teaching me patience and resilience go swimming – he thoroughly enjoyed and I am teaching him the basics." the whole of the park,” Thomas says. Thomas has a pacemaker and an ICD

A break for a boy who loves water Five year old Anakin Kingi thought all his “We made our sandwiches in the Christmases had come at once. morning and we took our drinks

At the moment, while travel is getting back to normal due to Covid-19, pamper packages are on offer for people who can’t get away but could do with a treat.

While you are welcome to bring members of your family on a travel break, IHC is unable to provide additional care for your child or children through the programme while you are away. If you know somebody deserving of a break or need one yourself, message Suzanne.Downes@ihc. org.nz or phone her on (027) 299 2105.

ihc.org.nz/take-break-us

(internal cardiac defibrillator) to manage his cardiomyopathy. "I have got a little battery pack that they inserted under my skin. It sends a charge through the wire to my heart to try to bring it back to a normal rhythm. It is like getting kicked in the chest by a horse."

“I used to drink and smoke. I have given all that up – I had to if I wanted to see my son and daughter grow up." "I am not one to sit down in a corner and wait for the inevitable." "I want to be there as long as I can for my children and my wife."

Thomas says he and his family were very grateful for their break. “It was so much fun – just the fact of something new.”

Support and breaks for Pat Pat TeAu’s retirement in the tiny village of Mangaore in the foothills of the Tararua Range is not entirely restful. She is sharing it with three grandsons.

She and other full-time carers have been offered breaks with IHC’s Take A Break With Us programme, sponsored by hotels and retailers to help carers like Pat have a bit of time out.

Pat was one of the first to be offered the choice of a night away or a pamper package in recognition of her hard work.

Pat, 77, looks after Jon, 10, Terence, 13, and James, 18. who get a school bus from Mangaore to

Despite her increasing age and failing Shannon School. health, Pat puts her energy into fighting The small, inclusive school operates for support for her boys and she fears as two flexible learning environments what will happen when she can no – a junior hub and a senior hub – with longer look after them. teacher aides assigned to learners with

“What support is going to be there for special needs. Jon and Terence are in them? I have been fighting all the way the senior hub. through for them,” she says. “The boys get home in the afternoon

“My hip’s gone. My back’s gone. I and I then shoot down and grab have got COPD [chronic obstructive James.” pulmonary disease]. I am on a puffer. Pat says they have a good routine and So I know my time is limited.” stick to it.

Still, Pat loads her walking frame Lunches are made the night before into the car for daily trips to and from school and the younger boys have their Shannon to deliver James to the jobs to do in the morning while she is school bus to Manawatu College in making her first trip to Shannon with the morning and to collect him in the James at 7.30am. afternoons. Then there’s rugby practice “Terence’s job is to put the dog out twice a week in Foxton. and give him his biscuits. They make

There is no bus for that so he needs their beds – it takes them anything from to pick up a lift in Shannon. half an hour to an hour to do that. They

Transport from the isolated village have breakfast at school – that helps is her main problem, and she hopes me a lot.” James will soon be driving. She first came to Mangaore, near

“He has finally got his learner license. I Shannon in Manawatu, 23 years ago to am teaching him. There is nobody else look after another grandchild, Page. to teach him,” Pat says. Prices were cheap in the small village

It’s a bit easier with the younger boys, five kilometres up the valley from

Shannon and she rented one of the 30 workers’ houses left vacant after the building of the Mangahao hydroelectric power station in 1924.

She then bought one two years later, in 1996.

Pat raised eight of her own children and has been ready to step in whenever her grandchildren need a home.

She has cared for eight grandchildren at different times since 1988 – “five full-time and four of those with special needs”.

She says she has a combined total of 60 grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.

Her regret is that she can’t give the same attention to all of them.

“My whole life is the kids. You don’t have time for anything else and it makes it hard for the other grandkids because I have to put them on the back burner. You think, 'You don’t need me; you have got your Mum',” she says.

But she says caring for three grandsons has its rewards – like finding a lovely note saying how good it was that she had taken them to live with her.

“It’s their love,” Pat says.

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