Chief Executive and Sports go hand in hand

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 22

Chief Executive and Sports go hand in hand

by Rakapa Sturm

Kupu whakamihi

Believed to be the youngest and only so far claiming Maori descent, Glen Haeroa Garlick became the Chief Executive of the Waikato Hospital Board. He took up his appointment on Sept. 9th. It is the biggest hospital board in New Zealand. The whole district runs from Port Waikato at the north to Mt Ruapehu in the south and from Kawhia to Rotorua in the east.

Glen, who is 39, has returned from a 12 week world tour made available by the World Health Organisation Travelling Fellowship. He visited Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Paris France, England, Scotland, Ireland and the USA. The reason for his visit to these places was: 1. how finance is allocated in different health care systems

2. how planning of finances is integrated with planning for service.

Glen said “Generally speaking, most people in the various countries are satisfied with the resources being put into their health care systems, but more could be achieved with the amount presently allocated to health care. Amongst health administrators there seems to be a feeling that to spend additional dollars on health care may not improve the health of their populations significantly from what it currently is”.

While in the United States he visited Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Honolulu, Hawaii. While in Laie, Glen addressed a group of Maori students who lived in the area.

Again Glen said “One of the most interesting projects observed was the Planetree Model Hospital Unit at the Presbyterian Pacific Medial Center, San Francisco. This three year experiment has as its prime objective, the “humanising” of hospital experience. Patient daily routines, (what to eat, and when, hours of retiring and rising from bed, arrangement of rooms, decorations, etc) determine the units routine, not the other way around, is the norm. The patients keep and oversee their own notes and full information in the form of video audio cassettes and books are available in the unit.

In formulating a philosophical base for the unit, the Planetree people looked back to Hippocrates and Ancient Greece. They found that people with known diseases were commonly taken to hospital sited in the most beautiful sites and cared for with the greatest attention to their own personal needs. A

foundational belief was that people who were at peace with themselves and the world would be better able to fight the physical manifestation of their diseases. This approach has important common elements with the current imperatives in maori health initiatives where taha wairua, hinengaro taha whanau and taha tinana are seen as vital interacting elements in curing people.”

Glen has also avid interests in sailing. “When I was ten days old I went sailmg”. He excelled at this sporting interest, that he has represented New Zealand in yachting at the Finn Gold Cup at the World Championships in Auckland 1980. A New Zealand junior swimming champion in backstroke and butterfly, he held these titles in ’6l, ’62, and ’63. Playing rugby, he represented Canterbury Maoris, Waikato Maoris and the Bay of Plenty Maori teams as well.

He is married to Viviene Tapsell, sister of Hon. Peter Tapsell, M.P. and has two children, Simon and Cassandra. Glen was educated at Rotorua Boys High. After attending the University of Canterbury, ’65-’6B on a maori scholarship, he graduated with his M.A. with Honors in History.

After one year in Tokoroa working for Forest Products, Glen moved to Tauranga to the Tauranga Hospital Board from ’72-’BO. In the meantime, he attended Massey University for a diploma in Health from ’75-'77. Before his latest appointment, Glen was at the Department of Health, Wellington from ’BO-’BS.

His parents are well known sporting personalities in Rotorua. Everyone knows his parents. Glen’s mother, Phyllis Parata, Ngati Mamoe ana Kai Tahu, is sister to Tata Parata, Secretary to New Zealand Maori Council. Glen’s father, Athol Garlick, received the MBE for services to sports and was the sports announcer for Rotorua radio station for many years.

Glen said “The fellowship enabled the followup of ancestors’’. The Garlicks who came from Malinsbury, Willshire, England, have left numerous reminders of the ancestors in graveyards and memorial plaques in the Norman Abbey in Malinsbury. A day spent in the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Research Library in Mass revealed much of the ancestors of the Parata’s,

Captain Trapp, of the Whaling ship Julian, as well as raising new questions yet to be resolved.

Involved in so many sports, Athol Garlick was always busy with rugby league, hockey, basketball, athletics, yachting, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, golf and rugby referees. In her own right Glen’s mother Phyllis is a passionate golf enthusiast. In fact she is always on the golf course, and has represented Maoris in golf championships, basketball and maori tennis. With such busy sporting parents, Glen said “My taua would take me to croquet while my mother played tennis or my father went sailing. All my father’s friends are Maoris from the Waikite Football club, its faithful and dedicated supporter.”

When Glen goes to take up his new position, his wife and children will move later. Just before his overseas trip Glen received confirmation of his appointment and it was quiet hectic. Glen continues to say, “In my new job I can see great challenges and opportunities here. In the Waikato district, Maori communities and interest groups, are amongst those testing the limits of how service might be best provided.

“Offering flexibility in the way services are provided, and the way resources are used, these are major issues facing social policy makers and service provides throughout the country. The youth of the Maori population is an important factor. So as the population ages, a great amount of attention and resources will need to be directed towards care of the elderly. How and when this shift is achieved will require not only goodwill, but active participation from all communities in the area.”

At present Glen swims, runs and cycles regularly. He is looking at training for the gruelling sport of triathalon.