Plunket Society

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Founder Truby King
MPs Hilda Ross (left) and Mrs. Gilmer, president of the Plunket Society, at the opening of Karitane Fair 1950 in Wellington
Plunket Rooms in Cust

The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society (colloquially "Plunket" in New Zealand) is a charitable organization based in Wellington , New Zealand . It provides health services with the goal of healthy babies and young children. The Plunket Society's mission is to ensure "that New Zealand children are among the healthiest in the world".

history

The meeting that led to the formation of the company was held in Dunedin on May 14, 1907, under the direction of Truby King . King was a medical director and lecturer in mental illness . He believed that by providing support services to parents, society could ensure that children were well fed and that child mortality would decrease. He also believed that this would also benefit the health of children in adulthood.

The society was originally called the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children . It was given its current name in honor of an early patron of the society, Victoria Alexandrina Plunket , a mother of eight children and wife of the then Governor William Plunket, 5th Baron Plunket .

Within a year the company had opened its first center in Truby's Kingscliff house in Karitane near Dunedin , with others following in Auckland , Wellington and Christchurch .

For many years it had to contend with the mistaken view that it was founded to care exclusively for the children of the Pakeha (settlers of European descent). This was compounded by the fact that the Department of Health ran a Native Health Nurse Service for the Māori in rural areas.

In 1912 King made a lecture tour on the Plunket Society. This generated a lot of support for society, mainly because King exaggerated the effects on child mortality. As a result, 60 new centers were established in New Zealand. A nurse worked in each center . These centers were known as the Plunket Room , now Plunket Clinics . King published several manuals, including Feeding and Care of Baby (1913) and The Expectant Mother and Baby's First Months (1916). The latter was given to every applicant for a marriage license in New Zealand .

Plunket today

The teaching and organization of the society changed over the years. In the beginning, strict rules shaped the concept of parenthood; today, care and support are in the foreground. The “Karitane Hospitals” were replaced by Plunket Karitane Femilien Centers in the 1970s . From 1981 child seats for the car were rented, since 1994 there has been a telephone consultation "PlunketLine". Special training programs have been created for the health advisors working among the Māori to enable them to receive culturally appropriate advice. Plunket is increasingly popular with families from the Pacific Islands.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charities Commission website
  2. ↑ a b c http://www.plunket.org.nz/about-us/our-history/
  3. ↑ a b c Jim Sullivan: I Was a Plunket Baby: 100 Years of the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society. Auckland, Random House 2007, ISBN 9781869418984

Web links

Commons : Plunket Society  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files