Simon Blakemore, Murchison Community Board chairman, says “mental pressure on rural communities is high because of expectations from people outside our community who want to make the world a better place but who do not understand how Rural Communities really work.”
An example of this is the local St John Ambulance service. Murchison is situated on State Highway Six and we have a very high workload because of this. Twenty-five percent of all call-outs are motor vehicle. During the day we have a manned ambulance with two EMT’s but at night the community is supposed to step up and provide volunteers.
We have been unable to recruit people and currently have backup from Nelson and Westport. Volunteers in our situation deserve to be paid for the level of responsibility expected of them. Of the two hundred and eight ambulance services nationally throughout NZ, Murchison ranks eleventh for the number of motor vehicle call-outs we have.
We are a small rural community of around five hundred people, the pressure is on everyone. On several levels we feel unsupported. Staff at our hospital don’t get the support they need from dealing with some of the injuries they have to face. Our landowners and farmers are being bombarded with changing environmental rules which will require significant input from a time-pressed community.
There is a shortage of good labour and many are working long hours over the summer months and I see no real solutions to our dilemma,” says Simon. We have good representation at Council level but they are stressed, too. We risk losing that good representation as a result of constant pressure and a community operating in overload.
Contact for the Top of the South Rural Support Trust co-ordinator Janice Gulbansen 0800 787 254
