A family with a sick child is a sick family. Caring for a hospitalised child often means family members put their lives on hold. Photo / 123RF
THREE KEY FACTS
Wayne Howett is the chief executive of RMHC New Zealand.
OPINION
Ronald McDonald House Charities NZ (RMHCNZ) finds itself at a challenging crossroads this year.
We have had our most impactful year to date, helping a record 4452 families and providing 42,000 nights of accommodation in 2023 for those with children in need of hospitalisation.
We did not turn away a single eligible family over the course of 2023 – keeping a promise we have maintained since we first opened our doors 37 years ago. But I’m concerned it is a promise we are not going to be able to keep in the coming years.
I have always been a numbers guy, and as we look ahead, it’s clear the demand for our services will grow in the coming years.
On top of that, we face the growing challenge of offering a home to families who have complex circumstances.
In the 10 years I have been the chief executive of RMHCNZ, I have seen firsthand how sickness in children is non-discriminatory. It is a relentless equaliser, capable of drawing tears from the eyes of even the most stoic parents.
Child illness doesn’t care what job you have, what car you drive or what school you went to. There is no karma when it comes to sick children. The children within a low socio-economic family are just as likely to get ill as those of the white-collar worker who types away on a laptop every day. RMHCNZ needs to be a safe home for all demographics, often at the same time.
A family with a sick child is a sick family. Caring for a hospitalised child often means family members put their lives on hold. It means leaving behind jobs, school and other opportunities to lend a helping hand. It’s a fight that no mother, father, brother, or sister should ever have to endure alone.
As a service, it has always been incumbent upon our team at RMHCNZ to provide a safe space for all families who need it, regardless of their background.
I often say that if you want to know what New Zealand looks like, come through our doors. Every RMHCNZ House ultimately serves as a magnified cross-section of our society, the good, the bad and the desperate. There are sometimes complex social dynamics at play and this means more of our resources are being diverted towards helping our staff navigate through these challenges.
The numbers from the past 12 months are a staggering reminder of how much work it takes to keep the wheels turning at RMHCNZ and provide help to everyone in need, but they may not be enough in the near future.
The service we provide allows parents and family members to focus on what matters most in the toughest moments: their sick child. We provide accommodation, warm meals and close proximity to the hospital.
If RMHCNZ were to start turning away families, it’s the children who would be impacted the most. In fact, these sick kids could miss out entirely on the treatment they so desperately need.
We know that parents will often delay or avoid treatment entirely due to the prohibitive cost of travel and accommodation. Even well-to-do families would shudder at the thought of having to cover inner-city hotel accommodation costs – and that was before we even had painfully high interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis.
We can’t afford to gamble with the future of New Zealand’s children. There is simply too much riding on this.
The reality is that unless we drive greater ongoing funding in the coming years, it will be impossible for us to continue to provide a ‘home-away-from-home’ to every eligible Kiwi.
Internally, we’ve come to refer to this as our ‘burning platform’ – a constant reminder that we need to do all we can to keep RMHCNZ providing compassionate care to every family that needs it.
I’m reminded here of Robert Frost’s oft-quoted poem, which concludes: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference”.
For us, the easier path would just be to increase the eligibility requirements; to start denying families who don’t meet the requirements on a checklist determined by some very clever consultants in ivory towers. No one would judge us for that. There would simply be a shrug of the shoulders and the quiet admission that there just wasn’t enough money to help everyone.
But what does this say about New Zealand. Do we really want to become a society that has to choose which sick child to support?
This would be akin to a rescue helicopter or ambulance leaving behind suffering Kiwis simply because they don’t meet precise requirements. New Zealand is better than that.
At RMHCNZ we refuse to accept that as our future. We refuse to shrug our shoulders at Kiwi families in need. And the only reason we have been able to do that for as long as we have is because of the support of New Zealanders who believe in the promise that underpins our organisation.
Our path forward might be more challenging than it has ever been, but we remain committed to the task ahead. What we need is for Kiwis to join us on this journey – that will make all the difference.
Motorists are advised to take care around the area.