KEY POINTS:
* Patricia Battersby, motivator, child abuse prevention advocate. Died aged 81.
In the 1970s Pat Battersby became involved in combating child abuse and neglect as its extent became known.
In 1977 she was a founder of the Child Abuse Prevention Society and the helpline it established, Parent Help.
She had definite views on how child abuse should be approached. It should be with respect for the parents and an understanding of how they had arrived at their predicament. It should be at a personal level, rather than regarding them as a generic problem that could be solved by a formulaic approach.
She hated techniques being applied to people, believing they got in the way of the human relationship on which any benefit was to be founded. She encouraged people and organisations to define clearly what they wanted and then enabled them to see how they could achieve their objectives.
One of her favourite maxims was, "You do know what you know but that's all you know." Another was, "What you see depends on where you stand."
She will be remembered by the many people who were involved in the seminars she ran for New Zealand and Australian businesses in the last three decades of the 20th century.
Her work could be described as motivational, although she scorned such labels. In her latter years she worked with the ASB Bank, doing what she called personal consulting at all levels in the bank.
She made a significant contribution to ASB's success as a humane, well-run organisation secure in its purpose and through this to business culture in New Zealand and Australia.
Pat Battersby was an independent, intelligent, compassionate woman. She could have been called many things; feminist, intellectual, home-maker, academic, mentor. But she would have laughed scornfully at all of these labels. People were people. Once you put labels on them you diminished their humanity and their potential.
A part of her life she regarded as a major asset was that she had raised a family of six. She achieved an enviable work/life balance. When her children were old enough she returned to university and then established her own business. Pat Battersby is survived by her husband, John, their children and families.
- Dr Ian Hassall, former Children's Commissioner
