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SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 7<br />
Peer Support to be<br />
Extended Across Aotearoa<br />
Creating a community of Peer Support for those who need it most<br />
ALL SMILES. The new funding will see greater support for people with an SCI across NZ.<br />
It’s the most significant announcement for the<br />
spinal cord impaired community in almost 50<br />
years. That’s the opinion of our CEO Hans<br />
Wouters on the recent news that ACC will<br />
invest $1.3 million into our Peer and Whānau<br />
Support programme over the next two years.<br />
We have a very exciting<br />
two years ahead of us.<br />
—Hans Wouters<br />
“This is without a doubt the most significant support for<br />
the collective SCI community in New Zealand since ACC's<br />
inception in 1974,” says Hans. “This is a very important<br />
commitment that will profoundly benefit the lives of SCI<br />
clients and their whānau.” And he is right.<br />
Hans featured in an interview on TVNZ‘s Breakfast show<br />
alongside Mark and Jayden Glentworth in November to<br />
make this significant announcement. He knows this<br />
investment into support across Aotearoa will make the<br />
world of difference.<br />
Peer Support services will soon be extended into homes<br />
right across the country.<br />
The two-year “proof of concept” proposal has been<br />
developed by charitable organisations Spinal Support NZ<br />
and our team at the New Zealand Spinal Trust.<br />
For people returning to their communities from specialist<br />
Spinal Units, this is a massive boost in their transition.<br />
Peer Support will coordinate a network of about 30<br />
fully-trained community peer support staff and dozens<br />
more community volunteers with lived experiences of<br />
spinal cord impairment.<br />
Currently Peer Support services are delivered at the<br />
Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit, and Christchurch’s<br />
Burwood Spinal Unit.<br />
The programme continues in those two units as well as the<br />
development of a community-wide peer network for clients<br />
and their whānau – from the Far North to the Deep South.<br />
A powerful interview on TVNZ Breakfast with John Campbell<br />
to announce the new funding from ACC for Peer Support.<br />
The network will provide support for people returning<br />
home from spinal units, and people with spinal cord<br />
impairments already living in the community.
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