Dave Appleyard, Jane Mitchell, David Shackleton, Bill Day
This team of very experienced and distinguished Rotarians, Past Presidents all, introduced a new project to our club. It is regrettable but true that our national health service is over stretched and as a result there are long waiting lists, and therefore long waits, for almost all non-life-threatening conditions, especially in mental health. This is especially true for young people, where long delays in treatment can have permanent results both for them and for others. The "Lifting the Lid" programme recognises this reality and aims to bridge these gaps in our health system. The project is aimed at secondary schools and ultimately all schools. It is started by a group of Rotary Clubs in an area setting up a small committee and liaising with local schools.
By this programme a school can arrange immediate help and treatment for a vulnerable student. When a school Guidance Counsellor becomes aware of a student with a mental problem they can alert the committee and communicate to the committee details of the case, although not the student's name, and a recommendation of what is needed and cost. The committee will then supply the money for the school to arrange a provider. It is a high trust approach, having confidence in the school's counsellor. The committee will later learn of the actions taken and results, but again, no names of students involved. The action might be a referral to a medical specialist, or to an experience that could be helpful, such as Billy Graham's gym in Naenae or the Boys Institute in Wellington.
Representatives of the schools involved have a quarterly meeting with the committee and each school has, and is aware of, a notional budget, depending on size and needs. Since its inception the project in Wellington works with eight secondary schools and has approved payments of $73000 and $56000 has already been paid out. The Rotary Club of Hutt Valley is interested in taking up the programme for the valley, initially with four schools approached and interested. There are six Rotary clubs in the Valley and four, Hutt Valley, Hutt River Valley, Petone and Hutt City are already involved. There is no set amount for an individual club to contribute although one has already raised $10000. Because the schools have a notional budget they are aware of practical limitations: it is better to under promise and over deliver than raise false hopes.
In so many ways this is a perfect example of a Rotary project. It is a programme that meets an urgent social need, it uses "seed funding", a sort of leverage aiming ultimately to set up a permanent arrangement extending beyond the first clubs involved, it makes use of existing expertise in the schools and in the medical fields, it is high trust and avoids any moral dilemmas such as deciding which candidate receives the help, all assistance being given at alms length, and most topically, it involves local clubs working together both in administering the programme and in raising funds for it. Ultimately for as long as there is a need the programme will continue and like the Asthma Foundation which was set up from our club in 1964 it will outlive those who set it up.