Our Malaga (Journey) to Samoa — What Ever It Takes

What Ever it Takes Home Based Rehabilitation and Support Services was born out of our need as a family to build strong support systems to help our family to stay together after my partner suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2002 resulting in tetraplegia.

We had a very young family at the time and our experiences trying to live in the community had been diabolical to say the least. And so rather than become one of those people that complains about everything and anything I decided to do something about it and went about developing a programme of care that supports whanau with a disability from a holistic perspective.

Our vision is to set the standard internationally for the delivery of care and support for whanau with a disability living in the community.

So what is so different about our service?? It’s simple - we implement a values driven model that empowers whanau to determine their destiny. Our model is based on “real life” experiences and the advantage we have is our ability to empathize with our clients because we’ve been there. Our common sense attitude and commitment to taking an ethical approach is fundamental to a quality service however there are other components that are integral to an ongoing and successful programme. These include pou or building blocks such as “Whakapapa” recognizing everyone involved in the provision of care from funders to immediate family members are all part of a committed “Whanau.” Another pou “Whakapono” encourages honesty, openness and transparency on the part of everyone involved something we would all like to think we practice but it’s not necessarily always the case. Essentially though the model revolves around “Mauri Ihu” which represents the life essence or our “client” – it is the core of our model.

The goals and aspirations of our clients are represented through our “Tumanako” pou and driven through our service delivery programme.An example of how we work within Mauri Ihu to achieve Tumanako is our whanau trip to Samoa. My husband Peter named our children after significant landmarks in his village Sa’ava in Salani and his intention has always been to take our tamariki back to their turuwhenua.

There was a time I thought we would never fulfill a lot of our dreams due to the complexity of Peter’s disability but I know now that this is definitely not the case. With the right support and a lot of organizing anything is possible with a whanau member that has a disability. Here are some of the key steps that resulted in our successful trip:

Step 1 – Travel and Air NZ. After what seemed like an inordinate number of phone calls trying to organize the logistics of our trip that resulted in no progress what so ever I took the bulls by the horn and emailed Rob Fyfe (CEO of Air NZ) directly. The support he insisted his staff provide us was “exceptional”! Suffice to say Peter Bell (Operations Performance Manager) made sure that all our needs were met – from check in ( with soooo much luggage and equipment), to clearing customs, to manually transferring Peter into his chair on the plane, to the flight itself, to doing it all over again in Samoa when we arrived and a repeat on the way back. They exceeded all our expectations and in actual fact this trip resulted in Air NZ reviewing their policies around transporting whanau with a disability.

Step 2 – Accommodation and Transport. Fortunately we have friends who live between NZ and Samoa and they have a couple of houses – one in town and one by Paradise Beach. They were our conduit between Samoa and New Zealand and we could articulate our needs very clearly. Apart from that they’ve observed us with Peter so they had a pretty good idea of some of our requirements around access, fatigue management, equipment, making sure we were in a comfortable environment, our kids, our team. We had the option of staying in town in a lovely home but we chose to stay in the village of Lefaga. It was lovely, clean, cool, peaceful and represented the real Samoa!There are no mobility vehicles in Samoa so we hired a high ace van, took out the seats, took over some ratchet lashes to strap the wheelchair in and had four strapping Samoan men acting as our hoist!! The roads are a bit challenging particularly from the villages into town but the flip side is there’s no road rage (or very little) so driving at 20kms per hour wasn’t annoying anyone!

Step 3 – Care Support We took with us two of our own staff and employed two of the village warriors to help out while we were there. Our warriors stayed with us 24/7 and we provided them with on the job training withPeter. However, their natural ability to slip into a caring role made training them very easy. Not only did they provide assistance with Peter’s cares but they helped out around the house, drove us everywhere, interpreted and occupied the kids. They were a real pleasure to be around – lots of laughing and positive energy and they really connected with Peter who in turn taught them a lot about living life to the fullest. Managing Peter, the kids, getting things done around the house like dinner etc can be a lot to manage however our team has a real ability to identify where the need is and use their initiative to address it. What’s the point of going on holiday if you’re stressed and tired? It’s important to work together as a team.

Step 4 – Things to do The village of Lefaga organized a whole host of events to honor Peter including a cultural night, a Po fia fia, an umu, use of the fale Samoa while we were at the beach to provide Peter and the kids with shade. Samoa played Fiji and we were given corporate box seats at the rugby (this consisted of plastic chairs at the front of the main stand and a couple of Samoan biscuits to share between 7 of us)!!Friends of our friends own a cafe’ in town so we made that our base when we were there, we also took the kids to Kitano Resort whilst in town for a swim and good feed of hamburgers! Most importantly though we travelled to Peter’s village and the kids were privileged to see the places they are named after, the village their father grew up in, their uncles, aunties and cousins all talking about the mischief Peter got up to as a young boy living in Salani and we visited the graves of Peter’s tupuna including his grandfather. It was truly an amazing process and one which I’m sure will forever impact on the lives of our children – Siagogo, Safenunuivao and Leata.

The key for us was to manage resting but getting out and about. We organized one event / activity a day and spent the rest of the time at the beach because it was 30 degrees! Rushing stresses me out so I’m very conscious about not over organizing. However, there is always the possibility that Peter may have significant head pain or fatigue which impacts on him being able to participate as he needs to rest during these times. For us it’s important that this doesn’t affect our kids ability to still have fun and do stuff so the people who travel with us (our team) are able to quickly adapt and implement a contingency plan. I know that my family will be well cared for in any situation and I never feel compromised because our team although always remaining professional are integral parts of our family and take over when I’m unable to. We tag team very effectively and always achieve what we set out to do.

Step 5 – Costs and Trouble Shooting. I was pleasantly surprised at how cheap it was to holiday in Samoa. The flights were $180 one way for an adult and $135 one way for a child. The van was the most costly expense for us at about $1,000 NZD for the week. This didn’t include petrol. Accommodation was very affordable as we only had to pay a koha to our friends. We had the use of kitchen facilities as well so we bought groceries and only went out when the kids needed a fix of hamburger or the like. We rented a water machine for the week as well which ended up saving us money as you don’t drink the tap water. We didn’t have any tummy bugs or infections – although Peter had an upset tummy for a couple of days but more from eating the rich palusami as opposed to food poisoning. I made sure I took some antibiotics with me in case of infection particularly from the coral while swimming. The kids cut their feet at the beach but I made sure the wounds were cleaned regularly and put them on the medicine. The biggest issue for us was the mosquitos. My leg blew up abnormally and our staff came back with a few oversized mossie bites. Our warriors gave me a Fofo or massage so my leg soon went down and we made sure we were in the fale Samoa on the beach so we didn’t suffer from sunstroke or similar.

All in all I guess it cost us about $6,000 in total which I think is pretty good for four adults and three children. This includes two business class fares as well as Peter has to travel in these seats to manage his height and positioning because he doesn’t fit in the eagle hoist which Air NZ has available.Summary I was so overwhelmed by the simplicity of life in Samoa but alongside this their attitude to make the most of what they have (or don’t have)!. The easy going, affable, respectful way of the Samoan people made our holiday so pleasurable and a real success.

Our experience motivated me to present a proposal to ACC around supporting their ACC Serious Injury Samoan Clients to live in Samoa should they wish to. The culture still very much operates in a village type of environment and caring for their families is part of their culture and is very natural to them. With a bit of guidance and support I believe we could implement a very successful programme of care. So, a number of our goals – both as a family and as individuals were achieved through our trip to Samoa.

In terms of our programme –there were a few things that had to happen before we were able to travel to Samoa. Peter had to be physically well and strong to cope with the travel and climate change, he also needed to be able to cope with the change in diet and he needed to work on his strength to assist us with transferring him as we didn’t take any hoisting equipment.

Peter’s goal to travel was the impetus for his rehabilitation and support programme at home and it certainly motivated him but ultimately it resulted in an amazing family holiday. This is an example of how real life goals are incorporated into our programmes of care to achieve rehabilitation goals but most importantly they contribute to aspirations that we might have given up on. With the right support anything is possible! U ki te whanau ora – Nurturing the family.