SNN_August 2022 Issue_web low res

NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 22
What do you enjoy about this role and supporting
others on a journey with an SCI?
I love getting to know so many different people and their
whānau, it’s special and a privilege to be part of their
rehab journey.
What’s the best bit about the job?
The people, the opportunity to listen, to share and to
make a difference. We are fortunate to all be part of an
amazing team who all have the same passion for helping
others to adjust to life after an SCI.
What advice do you offer to people when they are
about to go into the big world and leave the support of
the Spinal Unit?
It really depends on the person, their whānau and what
their discharge home looks like. Sometimes it can be
really practical advice, other times it may be more
emotional support and advice.
But it is always positive and with the reassurance that
things do get easier and that we are there to continue to
support them once they are home with our Community
Peer Support programme.
What does it mean to have ACC helping to fund
Peer Support?
This is an amazing opportunity to have Peer Support
recognised as a valuable and meaningful service. It
makes a huge difference in people’s lives and allows us to
roll out Peer Support across both the Burwood Spinal Unit
catchment area of Taupō south and the Ōtara Spinal Unit
covering the rest of the North Island through Spinal
Support NZ, who we are working closely with.
Why is Peer Support important?
Peer Support offers a unique understanding of the
individual’s situation. The lived experience of all of our
Peer Support team gives the person an ear to listen to
them and truly understand and feel what they are going
through. Offering advice, encouraging them to have a
voice and to be in charge of their health, as well as
understanding the impact of their SCI, and pointing them
in the right direction for any help needed.
What is your background, how did you get involved
with working for the NZST?
I had worked in a microbiology lab full-time prior to
coming to work with the Spinal Trust to help others get
back into meaningful employment after their SCI. It’s
been great to be working with and alongside others with a
spinal cord injury.
Take me back to the day of your SCI what happened?
I was 17 years old and had a bleed in my spine which
caused damage to my spinal cord. I’m T5 paraplegic, so
have no feeling or movement below this level.
What year was that and what are some of your
memories of your recovery and rehab?
My SCI was in 1991, my memories of rehab here at
Burwood are mostly of the fun that we had with some
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Meika Reid is only too
happy to pass on her lived experience with an SCI.
brilliant nurses, who made the start of each day
distracted from the realities of our injury. I also vividly
remember the extent of the fatigue and exhaustion of the
physical rehab. Just pushing to the gym and then falling
asleep while in the standing frame.
How does that first hand experience of recovering
from an SCI help you in your role in Peer Support?
Lived experience gives us a unique insight into
understanding everything involved with living with an SCI.
I know that life can still be great, and I know that we just
sometimes need to do things a little bit differently. I’d like to
think that I’m pretty good at finding ways to do things.
What is some advice you received back then that you
pass onto others now?
Find something that you love doing.
—Meika Reid
Peer Support offers a unique
understanding of the
individual’s situation.
You are working a full-time job and making a difference
to the lives of others, what do you think young Meika
who just sustained an SCI would think of that?
I think I’d be happy to know that I got through those first
couple of harder years, found enjoyment and great
satisfaction in what I get to do every day. I’m pretty lucky!