Respite service to help out weary families

By Dylan Thorne
Cheryl Everard knows every possible escape route from her Otumoetai Rd home - it's knowledge she's built up trying to keep her eight-year-old son on the property.
Daniel - who is autistic - has an adventurous spirit and requires 24-hour care.
In August, inspired by a controversial TV advertisement showing a child driving a new Hyundai Sante Fe to the beach, he arranged for a test drive over the internet.
His ruse was only discovered when a Tauranga Hyundai salesman contacted Daniel's father, Michael, at home to discuss an appointment.
A few years ago, he managed to slip out of the house unnoticed and wandered off to the local video shop.
"You've got to keep an eye on him all the time," she said.
The demands of raising a child with mental health or behavioural issues were massive, she said.
But a new respite service- the first of its kind in Tauranga-could give Daniel's parents the short breaks they need.
Youth Horizons, which specialises in the delivery of youth programmes, is looking for a co-ordinator and a clinician to run a respite service in Tauranga.
The staff members would deliver the service in the child's home or take the child to their own home.
Currently the only crisis respite care available for young people with mental health or behavioural issues is based in the adult inpatient ward and the paediatric wards at Tauranga Hospital.
The Everards, like other families in the city, have to rely on family to provide respite care or else travel outside the region.
The only break Mrs Everard gets during the day is when Daniel is at school or when he works with a therapist after school.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health clinical co-ordinator Margie Robinson said the new service would mean families would have access to proactive support.
"The new service is very welcome," she said.
"Benefits will include less travel, and utilisation of trained professionals to care for specific needs."
Midland mental health promoter Toni Ashmore said the initiative was good news for families with children who require specialised care.
"It is timely and appropriate that the Bay of Plenty has the availability of other options outside of [parents] placing their children in institutional settings when seeking support for their families," she said.
"Care that can take into account the individual child's needs as well as the family's needs and provide help based on this is much needed and very beneficial to assisting the whole family."
Mrs Everard said the respite service would plug a massive hole in the support networks currently available to young people with significant behavioural or mental health needs.
"It's overdue," she said.
Helen Jansen, who has two school-aged children with autism, said parents needed to know their children were being cared for by appropriately trained people.
"It means we can have a break, even if only for 24 hours, knowing our children are in safe hands."