BAIL'S TALES - JULY - "BAIL DETAIL"

It is not very often we get to present our high achieving organisation in detail to a Minister of the Crown. So we took the opportunity with both hands when the Associate Minister of Health, the Hon Jo Goodhew came to visit this month.

Ben Lucas, CEO of the NZ Spinal Trust presented first as we were keen to give the Minister a good overall understanding of what we do at the Allan Bean Centre. Ben not only told the NZST story but also managed to raise some concerns with the Minister supported by his colleagues in the room. Jo Nunnerley then gave a wonderful presentation about BAIL provoking numerous questions from the Minister along the way. We then proceeded to Transitionz followed by the Utley Gym where Jo again informed us all of how BAIL has made a lasting impact for many who have benefited from our outcomes focused research.

This month we also welcomed back Anne Sinnott our lead researcher who has been in Sweden assisting the Spinalis Foundation adapt their latest lifestyle book into a universally acceptable English version. This book is an exciting publication focusing on health and wellness after spinal cord injury and other neurological diagnosese. The English translation of this book will substantially widen the accessibility of this valuable resource.

On her way to Stockholm Anne attended the Rick Hanson Foundation “Interdependence” Spinal Cord Injury international conference in Vancouver Canada. She was the only New Zealand delegate at the conference and really took advantage of the opportunity to promote New Zealand and BAIL, while also reconnecting with international colleagues. Anne managed to manoeuvre her way into a personal meeting with Rick Hansen himself who was very interested in BAIL’s commitment to support persons living with impairments such as SCI into postgraduate programmes of study and research careers.

In the coming months we are thrilled to be able to support members of the BAIL family to attend conferences in Australia and Prague and we look forward to being able to tell you about these conferences in due course.

Please also note in your diaries that we are hosting a presentation on community integration after Brain Injury at our next Peer Group meeting on the 16th August 12-1pm in the Alan Bean Centre. Everyone is welcome to attend what will be an interesting and stimulating debate on how we can collectively work on improving outcomes after brain injury.