FIELD OFFICER’S VARIED WORK

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 2

FIELD OFFICER’S VARIED WORK

Crippled Children Society

Miss D. J. Buchanan, a Christchurch physiotherapist, has more than 500 children under her care in the course of her duties as a field officer for the Canterbury and West Coast branch of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society. Assisted by a trained nurse (Miss M. Fitzsimmons) she makes her round of town and country districts by car. “Quite a major part of my work is collecting children at their homes and taking them to the clinics for treatment,” she said. "Some of them go to the Cerebral Palsy School and others go to the physiotherapy department at Christchurch Hospital.” On her visits to their homes. Miss Buchanan is often called on to advise mothers who need help in caring for their children and to see that they have all the equipment they need. In addition, she receives children at Hie orthopaedic clinic and the physiotherapy clinic. Many children have swimming lessons at the Christchurch Centennial Pool and these are taken by an instructor, Mr J, Breward, who has been teaching classes for the last 22 years. The swimming lessons for handicapped children are now restarting after a break of nearly three months, when the pool was closed for repairs. Miss Buchanan said that another side of her transport duties was meeting plastic surgery cases from other centres and taking them from Christchurch airport to Burwood Hospital. Miss Buchanan has only been working fpr the Crippled Children Society for three weeks. She was welcomed to the society at a recent meeting of the general committee. Dunedin-trained, Miss Buchanan has worked in Christchurch for some years. She has also served overseas.