14 June 2023
Julian Court was Harbour Hospice’s first Volunteer Coordinator, and also the first person to have a paid role at Hospice. Julian’s background was in radiography and marriage guidance counselling. Her brother ran a hospice in Shropshire, England, so she had a special interest in hospice services.
“In 1985 North Shore Hospice [as it was known then] advertised for a Volunteer Coordinator and after several interviews I started work on 30 September 1985.
To begin with there were no nurses, just volunteers. The first thing I did was visit everyone who had applied to be volunteers to make sure they were suitable, then organised training for them. The volunteers’ role was to assist patients at home with things like shopping or cooking or sit with the patients and family.
I held support meetings for volunteers every month and we would go through the cases and how the volunteer work was going. That was very important. And I had to go to every Management Committee meeting and present a full report of everything we did.
My first office was at the back of the Takapuna Methodist Church in the kindergarten area, and because it was a kindergarten we just had kindergarten chairs! I also had to compete with music from the exercise groups in the hall, so had to gauge my time for interviews.
After a year I moved to an office in the geriatric department of the North Shore hospital. It was only big enough for one desk and one person, but it was better because I could be “seen”. I was based there for 18 months, interviewing people who offered to help and meeting with medical professionals to explain the Hospice vision. I spoke to the doctors at the hospital and visited all the doctors’ surgeries from Takapuna to Whangaparaoa to Warkworth/Wellsford. I helped start up groups in these areas and after a while COGS (Community Organisation Grants Scheme) provided funding to set up a coordinator for Warkworth/Wellsford.
From this point on we started getting really busy. In 1987 Tricia Clarkson was employed as our first nurse. A secretary and second nurse, Jan Wickens, were our next paid appointments. In 1989 our first Medical Director, Dr Robert Dunlop, was appointed and we were lucky to have him. He talked to the doctors and visited patients who were having difficulties with medication. He was very interested in pain control and was very ahead of his time.
I benefited from a three-month training programme in Perth run by the University of Western Australia. I was able to observe how things were run at a private 25-bed palliative care unit in the Returned Servicemen’s Hospital and it was a joy to learn from them.
Early challenges
We grew quickly, but due to a lack of understanding about Hospice there was friction with the district nurses and some of the doctors. They did not see us as professional. I went out of my way to change this, speaking at seminars put on by drug companies. I explained that our nurses needed to know about pain management and symptom control for patients; I told them we were a professional body that would eventually have our own fully-trained nurses and doctors.
Later, we ran a seminar for general practitioners with the support of local GP Dr Russell. We had speakers from Oncology, the Cancer Society, District Nursing and I spoke for the volunteers. That was attended by district nurses and 40 doctors on a Saturday morning and that’s when the community began to see how professional we were.
What the role taught me
The most rewarding aspect of my role was visiting the patients. One of my first patients was a dear old lady who was looking after her husband. She had very little sight and couldn’t get her washing clean in the washing machine. I was able to send a volunteer to do her washing for her.
The other was a girl who came in as a volunteer but developed cancer. She moved in with her brother and we provided meals for them every day.
The role taught me that life was worthwhile. I felt I had a purpose. I realised I had something important to offer.”
