Presbyterian Support Upper South Island is proud to hold the contract for a collaboration between 12 organisations across Te Waipounamu – 4 Home Care, 5 Alzheimer/Dementia NGOs and 3 Marae. Together we plan to provide respite to support the South Island’s rural communities, Māori, and people with Young Onset Dementia.
Our goal is to weave Treaty Enhancing approaches in all that is undertaken and deliver respite for the target populations in 17 sites across Te Waipounamu (13 rural, 3 Māori and 1 Young Onset service).
Our mission is to provide a day respite service that is fun to attend and provides socialisation, stimulation, friendship and education. All referrals are through Te Whatu Ora’s NASC assessment teams which ensures the service is free: there are no private payers for this government-funded pilot. Together we developed and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to agree on the key responsibilities of each agency and understand how teams will work together.
If it’s led by Presbyterian Support, it’s values driven.
Values to guide the project were jointly agreed as part of the collaboration’s MOU. They are:
| Arohatanga | Respect |
| Raranga | Caring |
| Manaaki | Compassion |
| Whakawhanaungatanga | Relationship Building |
| Kaitiakitanga | Guardianship |
We also developed a Position Paper on Dementia/Mate Wareware to go further promoting these values with decision-makers and advocating for more measures to be taken as New Zealand’s population ages.
[To view Presbyterian Support NZ’s position paper on Dementia/Mate Wareware click here].
If you’re in the South Island and living with Dementia, or have a whānau member with Mate Wareware, it doesn’t matter what age – contact us at Presbyterian Support for information about how to be assessed by a local NASC team for referral to our Pilot programme.
Our rural Homeshares can be found in Wanaka, Oamaru, Balclutha, Waimate, Geraldine, Temuka, Wakefield, Spring Creek, Havelock, and Reefton. We are working on HomeShare with our Māori Health teams in Otago, Timaru, and Christchurch. The Homeshare for Young Onset Dementia is in Ōtautahi, Christchurch.
