For Jeanette, one of two social workers at Te Omanga Hospice, much of her work is about supporting people with everything that sits around their medical care.
After 11 years working with patients and whānau facing terminal illness, she has seen how quickly life can become defined by what someone can no longer do – and by the limits of the support available to them.
"Often when I meet people, they have a really long list of what the support agencies can't do for them,” Jeanette says. They can't dust, they can’t clean windows, they can't garden or do many of the things that are really important to people at this point in their life.”
Many have become accustomed to being told what support they can and – more commonly – can’t access. Jeanette says that’s where her experience of RockPool has felt different.
“The answer to almost every question is yes. Yes, they can help with meals or gardens or dusting if that is important to your quality of life.”
That difference is why Jeanette has become what she laughingly describes as a major “have you heard of RockPool?” advocate.
Jeanette’s first introduction to RockPool Collective came through a family she was supporting. A woman with a terminal illness was vegan, and her daughter was trying to find a way to get suitable meals prepared for her. The usual options Jeanette knew about weren’t working.
“Once they wanted vegan food it became really complicated,” she says. The daughter discovered RockPool, and Jeanette contacted co-founder Libby to see whether they could find a way to help. “In the way that RockPool is, they said yes and they made it happen. They are so great for all those out-of-the-box things that don’t fit the standard criteria of what is normally available.”
For that family, the support came at a time when everyone around the patient was already stretched. One of her daughters was unwell herself, while the others had young children and worked full-time. Having someone buy the groceries and prepare
food once a week took one thing off their shoulders. “It just shifted their ability to cope,” Jeanette says. “It made them feel like they could go on.”
Since then, Jeanette has referred a number of people to RockPool for practical, person-centred support. She sees an important role for RockPool especially when someone doesn’t have a lot of support around them, or when the family and friends providing that support are already at capacity.
For some people, having a RockPool Rep visit provides a sense of respite from everything they are carrying – including the everyday things around their home that illness may have made difficult or impossible to keep on top of.
Jeanette remembers visiting one family who had become used to navigating the limitations of the support available. One seemingly ordinary possibility had an enormous impact.
“The fact that she could have her house dusted – she almost cried with happiness,” Jeanette says. “When you’re stuck in your house 24/7, having to look at a dusty house is awful. Or watching your beloved garden weed over while you can’t do anything about it. Things like that are big for people facing terminal illness.”
For Jeanette, that flexibility is an important part of what makes RockPool different. Rather than defining what someone should need, the model gives people more choice over what meaningful respite and support looks like for them.
“It’s giving them some control. They go from being a recipient who needs to be grateful to someone who has agency and can choose what they want and how they want something done.
“It’s a whole different kind of model and it really honours the person.”
Carer Support funding has helped make RockPool’s respite support accessible to many of the people Jeanette has referred. She says RockPool has helped people understand how their funding can be used to access support that gives them and their whānau a break, while responding to what matters to them as an individual.
But for Jeanette, what RockPool provides isn’t only about practical support.
Terminal illness can mean a person’s days become increasingly shaped by appointments, symptoms and the care they need. Jeanette sees real value in having someone come into their life who is interested not only in what needs doing, but in who they are.
“Once you are sick, you become the sick person. So those moments where you can not be the sick person – where you can be yourself – are so valuable.”
That relational approach is one of the things she values most about RockPool. A Rep might lend a hand with something that matters to the person, but they also have the time to talk, listen and build a genuine relationship.
“It’s friendship-based. It’s like you’ve inherited an extra friend or daughter-in-law who is popping in to lend a hand.”
For Jeanette, being able to trust the organisation she is referring someone to matters too. When she tells a patient or whānau that RockPool will be in touch, she needs to know that will happen.
“The process has been great. Libby is timely and really quick at getting back to me. If I’ve said that something will happen with RockPool, then I know it will happen.”
It is that combination of practical, flexible and relational support that Jeanette believes fills a gap for people facing terminal illness – the things that still matter enormously to someone’s quality of life, but sit outside their medical and personal care.
“It’s not a medical service, but it works alongside the medical and personal care supports and fills that gap,” she says. “Those gaps after medical and personal care – that’s what was missing before RockPool.”