Service updates
during COVID-19

Visionwest Community Trust

13 hours ago

Thanks for our new gardens, Bunnings!
It’s just awesome when local businesses recognise the work Visionwest is doing by joining in with a helping hand. That’s what Bunnings New Lynn did last week.
Visionwest Housing manages an 18-unit Kāinga Ora transitional housing complex in Blockhouse Bay. Last Thursday, as part of their Community Support Programme, a team from Bunnings, New Lynn came along to the complex and spent several hours sprucing up the outdoor areas.
The team built and planted two raised vegetable gardens and donated several fruit trees and other smaller garden trays and hanging baskets. The vegetables and fruit will help feed our whānau in the coming months.
The team also barked the carpark edging and donated an outdoor table and chairs for the office deck.
The Visionwest Housing Team put on a sausage sizzle over lunchtime to feed our friends from Bunnings and a few residents and staff who came out to see what was happening.
A big THANK YOU to Bunnings Warehouse New Zealand, and especially the New Lynn branch, for their amazing generosity – the gardens look great and will be appreciated even more when the vegetables and fruit are ready for eating!
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Visionwest Community Trust

5 days ago

Financial Mentoring can Change Lives.
“I love to journey with whānau and see them come to a place where they are able to achieve their financial goals – that is really awesome and, for me, it’s what my role at Money Mentors is all about.”
Those are the words of Jo, a Kahukura Financial Mentor and the Team Leader of Money Mentors – Visionwest’s budgeting service.
In the year to June 2021, Money Mentors provided 1,000 financial mentoring sessions and saved $97,000 of whānau debt. Since the latest Covid lockdown, these numbers have almost doubled.
To read more about Jo’s work as a Visionwest Financial Mentor, click here - visionwest.org.nz/jos-story-financial-mentoring/
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To find out more about Money Mentors - visionwest.org.nz/money-mentors/
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Visionwest Community Trust

6 days ago

INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY
Today, May 12th is International Nurses’ Day, and we want to pay tribute to all our amazing, dedicated Registered Nurses who are part of VisionWest Home HealthCare.
Our nurses always do an awesome job, but this has been especially noticed and appreciated over the past couple of years of Covid as we have worked to provide essential care to the elderly and those with disabilities in our local communities.
A BIG shout-out and thank you to all our Home Healthcare nurses (and all the other nurses around Aotearoa New Zealand). Stay safe and be proud of the care you provide and the difference you make every day. It’s great to have you on the team as we work to Build Hope Together. Kia kaha, Ngā mihi nui.
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As part of our tribute to nurses, Lois, Lead Care Manager (RN) from our Waikato Branch, shared this story.
Last year, one of our long-term clients who has Parkinson’s Disease, gradually lost her ability to walk. She spent several months in a residential care facility, but the client and her daughter were adamant that she wanted to be in her own home – her daughter had promised her this would happen.
When our client returned home, she had some serious secondary health issues requiring attention from District Nurses. The daughter, however, was uncertain about allowing any nurses or Support Workers to visit more than once a day, such was her desire to provide the aroha and care her mother required.
When it became clear that the daughter was unable to sustain the level of care required, a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) consisting of a range of medical staff, including nurses and others from Visionwest Home Healthcare, was formed to meet regularly and discuss how to facilitate the ongoing support of both the client and her daughter.
After much discussion, predominantly between the nurses on the MDT, the daughter began to trust us enough to allow our Support Workers into the home four times a day to assist with medication oversight and full cares including assisting with liquid food in feeding cups.
The Visionwest Coordination team ensured the visit times were strictly adhered to for the spacing of the Parkinson’s medication and to coincide with Hospice Nurse visits.
Incredibly, the client’s secondary health issues improved greatly to the point where her Hospice Nurse care was no longer required – it was handed back to the District Nurses. The client now has the care she requires and is comfortable in her own home.
This has been a wonderful ongoing team effort from Support Workers, Coordinators, and health care professionals, all tied together by the skills and dedication of the nurses involved.
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Visionwest Community Trust

7 days ago

One of the strategies used by Visionwest to transform lives and create healthy communities is Collaborating for Change.
For the past three to four years, members of the Visionwest team have been collaborating with Brad Heaven who is doing an amazing job building a vibrant and thriving community at Western Park Village in Ranui.
Over Covid we were privileged to support Western Park Village in a number of ways and still provide food each week.
The hero of the story, however, is Brad who has worked hard to create a village that is a positive and affirming place to live for many people who might otherwise have nowhere to go.
Read the full story of Brad and Western Park Village here: www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-residents-of-the-ranui-caravan-park-building-a-vibrant-and-thriving-com...
PHOTO – Michael Craig – NZ Herald.
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