HELPING HAND
Supporting the vulnerable
‘‘I’ve been very lucky in the choices that I have made or the opportunities that I have been given and taken to do what I do. It’s a privilege, really.’’
Carol Searle, who is leaving Mash Trust.
‘Acommunity is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable people,’ is a phrase that sticks out in Carol Searle’s mind.
Searle has worked with society’s most vulnerable people for years, including those with mental and physical disabilities, mental illness, and drug and alcohol addictions.
Her time at Mash Trust, an organisation that offers support to those with disabilities, was supposed to be a brief three-month stint in 2005.
Almost 13 years later, as the head of the organisation, Searle is finally walking out the door.
At a young age, she knew she wanted to make a difference in the lives of those around her.
‘‘I left school with School C and no degree – I’ve done that extramurally.’’
At 21, she was married with three children. She worked as a school secretary, before shifting to be a records clerk for the Department of Social Welfare, as it was then known.
Her career then led her into a range of government department jobs, including working at the Ministry of Health.
Searle set up her own company before starting at Mash.
Although she had experience in the disability sector and aged care, she had little experience in mental health. But she was up for the challenge.
‘‘I don’t like injustice and I don’t like inequality.’’
Mash stands for Manawatu Accommodation and Sheltered Housing Trust, which began in 1989.
However, Searle said it started as a mental health provider when Lake Alice, a psychiatric hospital in Rangitı¯kei, closed in the 1990s.
The organisation has grown tenfold over the years.
‘‘There were 175 staff when I came and $5 million of government funding. Now there’s 540 of us and we’ve got about $27m of government funding coming in here.’’
Today, there are services across the lower North Island for people with mental illness, intellectual or physical disabilities, alcohol addictions, and youth respite care.
‘‘It’s really just supporting people with either intellectual, physical or mental health issues live a life for them that’s in the community.’’
Searle puts the organisation’s growth down to people liking its values and care, and wanting that for their family.
Seeing both her staff and the people they support grow and develop has been one of the most rewarding things about her job, she said.
In the past 12 years, she has seen people turn their lives around.
She has heard stories that make people laugh and others of pain.
One that sticks out in her mind is of a young woman who graduated from the organisation’s drug and alcohol programme.
‘‘I remember one girl had made a flute out of a piece of stone and then when you heard her story about the abuse, physical and sexual abuse that she’d been through, and then she had played this stone flute – it rips your heart out.’’
The growth of another woman’s independence also stuck in her memory. The woman had an intellectual disability, but moved out of the Mash youth service she was in, and into her partner’s house, after becoming engaged.
There was also a Special Olympics champion, she said.
‘‘What I find so moving is the difference that this team make in [their] lives.’’
With tears in her eyes, she said she was hugely proud of the organisation and felt like a ‘‘proud mum’’ towards its staff.
But Searle said a pair of ‘‘fresh eyes’’ were needed to come in and help the organisation be the best it can be.
‘‘I’ve been very lucky in the choices that I have made or the opportunities that I have been given and taken to do what I do. It’s a privilege, really.’’
Searle will remain on a few boards and continue with volunteer work. However, she also plans to take some time out with her husband Don and live like ‘‘gypsies for a while’’ in their new caravan.
‘‘My husband tells me that I need to have at least three weeks away from here so I learn to let go.
‘‘I’m a disruptive influence when I’m bored. That’s what my school report said and I haven’t changed.’’