Karitane care again

Press, 1 November 1979, Page 1

Karitane care again

Karitane nursing care will start again in Christchurch soon, in a house in Riccarton. The Plunket-Karitane Family Unit Council, a group set up to find a new approach to Karitane care when the Karitane Hospital closed in Christchurch last December, will use a two-storey house in Riccarton Road to continue its services. The house will be a pilot scheme, and the first in the South Island. It will be modelled after two newly established house centres in the North Island — at Porirua and Auckland.

The council’s Canterbury chairman (Mrs A. M. Harris) said yesterday that the house would give the same kind of care as the hospital, but only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The hospital gave 24-hour care. A Plunket nurse and two Karitane nurses would teach baby care, and refer mothers to other services where required. Mrs Harris said she was optimistic the concept would “catch on,” allowing houses to be opened in other suburbs. It was essential to have a place to take mothers for instruction in mother-

ing, or simply to separate them from the baby long enough to establish a better feeding pattern, Mrs Harris said. Mothers were more willing to come to a house for advice than be admitted to a hospital. The Riccarton house was being renovated by the Housing Corporation, which owned it, and would be rented to the council. All running costs would be met by branches from Kaikoura to Waimate, which had also maintained the Karitane Hospital, and the Government would pay the nursing salaries. The service would be free.