Plunket - Today is our 100th birthday!

14 May 2007

Clap hands for Plunket Today is our 100th birthday!

Plunket Mums, Plunket Nurses and Plunket babies and volunteers, clap hands and take a bow, today it is 100 years since Sir Truby King founded Plunket – New Zealand’s child health provider – envied internationally for its unique combination of clinical and volunteer staff working together.

At any one time nearly 95 percent of the population can lay claim to being a Plunket baby. Our Grandmas and Mums were Plunket Mums and volunteers, raising funds to support child and family health in our communities. A term or two on Plunket committees has become a right of passage for the majority of Plunket Mums of today, many of whom juggle family and work commitments.

The eagerly awaited visits from the Plunket Nurse have become part of family folk lore as babies are checked, weighed and those memorable notes on baby’s progress are entered into the now legendary Plunket Book.

Today’s Plunket nurses are a highly skilled group of clinicians, having attained the equivalent of a masters degree. They work alongside Community Karitane and Kaiawhina in clinical teams providing child health checks and independent advice to families during home visits, Plunket clinics, mobile clinics and at family centres.

Plunket’s New Zealand President Kaye Crowther, feels Sir Truby King would be pleased to see how his vision evolved over 100 years.

“We all owe a debt of gratitude to Sir Truby King and his goal of ‘helping the mothers and saving the babies’.

“Today his model of a nationwide child and family health organisation, with its heart in the community, and supported by highly professional clinical teams and enthusiastic volunteers and supporters, would have gladdened him.

“What would have saddened him is that the need for such an organisation is as crucial and relevant today as it was one hundred years ago. Parenting is indeed a joyous but often difficult task.

“Plunket will never give up, whatever societal changes are thrown at us, we will continue to advocate for families and work extremely hard to ‘give every child the best start in life’”, says Kaye Crowther.

ENDS