How IHC came to be
From its small beginnings in a Wellington meeting room in 1949 to becoming an important organisation that helps almost 4000 people with intellectual disabilities, IHC has had a long history in New Zealand, but as Ruby Macandrew found out, the service has
Fed up with seeing children with intellectual disabilities relegated to institutions, far away from their families, Harold (Hal) and Margaret Anyon decided to do something about it, not only for their son but for the wider community.
After the couple were told their youngest son Keith had Down syndrome, their doctor said they ‘‘deserved something better’’. The suggested option was to send him away. The Anyons were not having a bar of it. Dismayed by the 1940s way of dealing with disabled children, Margaret Anyon got to work rallying Wellington parents to join together to do better for their children.
She began contacting then prime minister Peter Fraser and the minister of education, highlighting the lack of spending on the educating of children with intellectual disabilities, and urging them to ‘‘awaken the country’s responsibility to a class of children at present ignored by society, but who could with proper training be adjusted to good citizenship’’.
While the requests were humoured for several years, no action was taken, so after exhausting all the government avenues she could think of, Margaret set about putting a notice in the Evening Post on October 24, 1949, inviting ‘‘parents and guardians of backward children in the Wellington district . . . to attend a meeting . . . to consider the formation of a parents’ association’’.
During the hour-long meeting, the 22 gathered parents agreed to establish an interim committee and meet again in a month’s time. The November meeting was attended by 50 parents, much to the delight of Hal and Margaret, who respectively became the newly formed Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Parents’ Association (IHCPA) president and secretary.
A Dominion conference in Wellington in April 1950 helped establish branches in other centres. By 1953, the IHCPA had a thousand members nationwide.
While not without its challenges and opposition from some members of the public, the organisation continued to grow and advocate more widely for the rights of those with intellectual disabilities.
IHCPA condemned the placement of children in larger institutions like Templeton and Kimberley where the organisation believed they ‘‘deteriorated physically and mentally’’. It advocated instead for group houses where children and adults could stay and gain independence.
The government responded by funding the IHCPA to provide a range of services. But little changed when it came to policy. In 1974, after years of advocacy and pressure, the government imposed a moratorium on the expansion of psychiatric hospitals.
A year later, in 1975, the organisation changed its name to the New Zealand Society for the Intellectually Handicapped, and then to IHC New Zealand Inc in 1994. While the initials no longer stood for ‘intellectually handicapped children’, IHC programmes general manager Janine Stewart said it was already so well known that it made no sense to change it again.
‘‘Mostly what we’ve found is that people recognise the IHC name. They may not always know what we do but they know we do good work.’’
Stewart, who had been with IHC for 25 years, remembered the group home setups of the past, having lived near one in her youth.
‘‘There was a hostel near my home where a lot of children with disability lived. I used to go past it and I couldn’t quite get over that they were all locked in this huge house.’’
She said while so much had changed and become better, for people with intellectual disabilities and their families, there was a still a long way to go.
‘‘There are still major challenges around community inclusion . . . For people with intellectual disability, the access to work is abysmal so is getting the right healthcare, buying a home – all those sorts of things.’’
Stewart said she, and IHC’s 4500 staff, often thought back to the Anyons and the other pioneer families when looking forward to what still needed to be achieved and the organisation’s future.
‘‘I think there will still be a need for us to exist in another 50 years. I think our role will be different but we will continue to adapt to help those who need us most.’’