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Description

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How can a charitable trust with a 51 hectare site on the cliff top of Aucklands North Shore work best for children with disabilities

The Trust believes it can continue to provide environments that send a strong signal that children are valuable

There is a unique collaboration between the Waitemata District Health Board Ministry of Education and The Wilson Home Trust to provide and improve purpose built facilities accessible environments and a range of support and services for children with disabilities and families

The Wilson Home Trust Deed authorises the Trust to provide a range of services to children with a disability

Rather than duplicate services already offered by Government funded agencies the Wilson Home Trust adopts a collaborative and facilitative approach with Health Education and Community organisations that provide services directly to children

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History

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The Wilson Home Trust was established in 1937 when Mramp Mrs W R Wilson gifted their family home and 13 acres of magnificent coastal gardens at Takapuna for the express benefit of children with disabilities

Two years earlier the Wilsons had been inspired by an address from noted physician Dr Bernard Myers about the new trends in treating children with polio and other crippling conditions and disabilities Myers identified the ideal situation being a garden hospital the seed was sown

The founding Trust Deed was drawn up and fundraising began

Lord Nuffield the founder of Morris Motors contributed pound10000 to the endowment fund This set in concrete the future of the Wilson Home as a place of convalescence and therapeutic rehabilitation for children and as an official child disability charity He had previously gifted pound50000 towards the care and treatment of NZ children who were affected by polio in the 1930s

For many years children lived at the Wilson Home while receiving treatment and schooling By the 1990s attitudes to the care of children with disabilities had changed and greater value was placed on children living in their own home attending their local school and participating in their own community

Evolved as a charitable organisation to become a place of patient therapy

The Ronald Caughey Assessment Centre was opened in 1977 and housed outpatient clinics a hydrotherapy pool and therapy gyms The Wilson Home facilities have increasingly been used for the provision of rehabilitative therapy respite care and paediatric clinics

In 1999 a major rewrite of the Trust Deed was undertaken to encompass the facilitation of educational social and health services throughout the Trusts area

The Wilson Home Trust is an official charitable organisation

The Wilson Home Trust is registered with the Charities Commission Reg No CC21396 The title to the entire Wilson Home site is held by Waitemata District Health Board as trustee for the Wilson Home Trust