There have been a few more workshops this month, some to trainee counselors and a couple to schools. It’s almost the sad part of the year, as workshops slow down (because they are my FAVOURITE thing to do in this job!!!)
Quia Tatou, the Hamilton support group had its last meeting for the year. Thanks to the Vodafone NZ Foundation, I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate and help out with this group. There has been a lot of interest about the group, so it should go very well next year. I also had the chance to speak at the QuTER (Queers in Tertiary Education and Research) end of year conference. Several RY members and myself were there to provide a youth voice to the conference.
This month included both World AIDS Day (1st of December) and the Transgender Day of Remembrance (21st of November) – both incredibly important to remember. This year there was a vigil held in Auckland (as well as another in Wellington) for the Transgender Day of Remembrance that some members of Rainbow Youth attended. While there is a lot of talk about gay, lesbian and bisexual youth and creating safer spaces for them to grow up in. We must also be working towards a society that supports all our transgender, intersex and gender-queer young people. Gender identity is often less understood than sexual orientation, however both are intrigue parts of who we all are. It was good to be at the vigil, and I hope it grows in numbers and presence each year.
Finally this month we had the launch of our library extension. Rainbow Youth received $2,500 from the Auckland City Community Group Assistance Fund towards the purchase of new books and DVD’s. So we now have 67 new books that can be borrowed by members and community workers and 23 new DVD’s that our social/support groups can utilize and that people can watch in the centre.
Looking back over this month is immensely satisfying! The months of negotiations, kiwi catching and nest monitoring are finally paying off for the kiwi project as we continue to creche chicks and collect eggs.
Our second chick, Westy, arrived at Bushy Park on 28th November at just 540 g and less than a month old. He was greeted by some pupils from Westmere Primary School who got the task of naming him after they generously donated some money to our kiwi project.
Westy was collected as an egg from the Waimarino Forest and was incubated and hatched at Rainbow Springs, Rotorua. He will be with us until he reaches his release weight at which time he will be released into the protected Karioi Rahui forest.
We also had some sad news this month. Sam, our chick from the Waitotara Valley who hatched at Rainbow Springs had to be euthanased as he was extremely sick. The staff and vets at Rainbow Springs did all they could for him and he got the very best care.
However, we do have another healthy little chick called Milo who is currently at Rainbow Springs and due to arrive at Bushy Park just after Christmas. The kids at College Street Normal School named Milo, who we collected as an egg from the same nest as Westy.
One more egg is being incubated at Rainbow Springs and due to hatch any day now. We collected this egg from the Waimarino Forest on the 24 November.
Staff from Enviro Research Ltd and myself headed out into the Waimarino Forest in mid November to look for Poutahi, our recently released kiwi chick. She is still as feisty as ever and has put on 100g since her release in October – a sure sign that she is enjoying her new environment. Because Poutahi was our first chick to be creched I will always remember her and take a keen interest in her progress. She is the perfect example of what I have been working towards this year – releasing healthy juvenile kiwis back into the wild to boost kiwi populations.
Meanwhile, our adult kiwi are continuing to settle down on nests with at least three birds currently incubating eggs. I have a busy egg lift schedule coming up in the new year!
So, after months of laying the groundwork for our kiwi project I am finally at the happy stage of a schedule that is dominated with nest monitoring and chick care – just perfect!
November already and no let up…What an amazing year so far and only two months left to go….It was a fast month so hang on tight and enjoy the ride! It began with finalising plans on the much anticipated “Siblings camp” in Hanmer but with a week left and many of the children unable to go for various reasons we decided to wait until February. So the next two weeks were spent luxuriating in the simple day to day of art therapy practice and research…I wish! There were two funerals during that time, Rod Donald, who passed away suddenly…the group I sing with performed a few songs for the occasion…That morning, while I was singing, the young patient that I was meant to be seeing at that time lapsed into a deep coma and died peacefully at the age of sixteen. He was a great young man and made many many friends during his fourteen year battle with cancer. He has left a legacy of stories among people from all walks of life and his funeral a few days later was a real testament to that…with messages from sport stars from overseas, local D.J.s, and of course, his close friends and family.
Not to be outdone, my good mate decided to go into premature labour (29 weeks!) at the same time and I ended up being her support as her midwife and partner were both away…she held on for a couple more days and eventually gave birth to a beautiful baby girl (“Fox”)…who has since put on heaps of weight and looks like she’ll be out of hospital for the New year….so an eventful two weeks.
That evening I was off to Hamilton to continue training in a creative therapies model which was excellent. I returned the following Saturday for our end of year gig in Lyttleton, Christchurch…all go. Next morning I flew out to Sydney and met up with mates that I haven’t seen for many years. I also had a chance to reconnect with some of the art therapy education staff in Sydney and two days later it was off to Hobart, Tasmania for the annual ANATA (Australian National Art Therapy Association). The conference was excellent and there was also a heated AGM during which many new motions were carried one being that ANATA become ANZATA…Yay! I presented research there and was delighted to see the interest among fellow members in the field of paediatric art therapy and art therapy in oncology in general. The profile of art therapy in such situations has been raised significantly in this past year and I truly hope that more art therapists will come on board in practicing further in this area.
I finally returned back to Christchurch on December the first to the organised chaos that was ” a Fun Razor” 2005s version of “A Close Shave” …what a fantastic day that was but I’ll save the story for next months diary, stay tuned.
Campbell Live story
Rob Harley, recently filmed footage for the Vodafone NZ foundation winners’ documentary, which shows one of my patients who has done well with the biomedical approach. He was so “blown away” by the story of Regan’s recovery he relayed it on to some colleagues at TV3- “This needs to be heard in the public arena”.
Some of Regan issues at 3 1/2 years old included minimal language, repetitive behaviours, lack of toilet training, extreme rigidity around routines, prolonged frequent tantrums, poor eye contact, lack of imaginary play, lack of interest in others, diarrhoea, bloating and a narrow diet with the typical obsession with wheat and diary based foods. His family’s life was dominated by his disorder and they were desperate to find answers.
Regan responded fantastically to the gluten (wheat) free, casein (diary) free diet and within a few days started to improve with his connectedness with the world, another benefit was his bloating and diarrhoea started to subside. Over the following months we have also treated some of his metabolic imbalances that had shown up on testing. A beautiful, calm, happy and very chatty child has emerged from the confused world of autism to join his family.; To view the TV piece follow the link.
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/tabid/67/articleID/1435/Default.aspx
As you will see Regan is just gorgeous. Since then he has made even more progress and he will be starting school without any teacher aide soon, imperceptible from the other children in his class. The story would have been so different without this intervention. As for some of the comments of the pediatrician – what can I say?
Parents’ workshop
At the end of the month I ran another parents’ workshop and updated them on the latest messages from the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) conference. There are of course plenty of parents keen to pursue this approach but at this stage only myself and one other doctor, Lisa Searle, practicing biomedical intervention. I’m pleased to say that an interested paediatrician attended and I’m hoping she will also choose to join us and adopt this exciting approach.
