About the Burns Support Group Trust

What is the Trust?

The Burn Support Group Charitable Trust is a non-profit organisation, the aims of the trust are:

  • To provide burn injured persons (and their families) with support and assistance, during and after hospitalisation, and to help them to return to normal and satisfactory lives within the community
  • To lower the incidence of burn injuries by prevention, awareness and burn prevention education;
  • To improve patient care by funding equipment where required;
  • To foster sharing of information between survivors, families, health professionals and other interested parties;
  • And to provide opportunities for mutual support for burn survivors, who through their experiences have found inner strengths and risen like the Phoenix, from the ashes.

The History

Burns are traumatic injuries for both patients and their family/whanau. Burn patients can be faced with many losses – their usual physical appearance, sometimes their home, income, and perhaps they are also grieving the loss of a family member or colleague involved in a fire. Therefore, a multiple grief situation is not uncommon. This is often experienced whilst also enduring a long hospitalisation period. The multiple emotions felt by burn survivors and the need for care on many levels, was the reason that founder Delwyn Tait felt there was a very real need to not only augment hospital care for burns patients but also particularly support patients and their families throughout the rehabilitative phase of a burn injury.

On Sunday 19th February 1984, Delwyn’s eight-year-old son, Brendon received burns to 40% of his body in an explosion in Papakura, Auckland. It was as a direct result of this experience that Delwyn began visiting burn patients in Middlemore Hospital weekly for about two years. It rapidly became apparent to her that one of the most difficult phases of a burn injury occurred after the discharge from hospital when the patient must come to terms with changes in body image and the associated reaction to this appearance from other people. She felt this could be made considerably easier with the support a group could give, as she was receiving very successful feedback from burn survivors who she had ‘matched’ together, sometimes during their hospitalisation or after discharge.

The group has mushroomed considerably since it’s humble beginnings with the first small meetings held in Delwyn’s home in 1987. Over 1,500 supporters and survivors are now on the Trust’s database, there are two part-time employees and the Trust is now taking a two-pronged approach – support and prevention.

Support

We aim to support and assist people with burn injuries by:

  • Visiting patients and their families in Middlemore Hospital.
  • Improving patient care through the funding of equipment to help burn patients, over and above that funded by the health service.
  • Fostering the sharing of information between burn survivors, their families, health professionals and other interested parties.
  • Offering to accompany and support children who have burn injuries when they return to school.
  • Providing opportunities for mutual support for burn survivors, such as workshops and our annual Burn Support Children’s camp for 7-14 year olds.

We are an Auckland group, but also provide support for individuals from across New Zealand whom we come into contact with during hospital visiting. We provide patient information packs, and can ‘buddy’ individuals up with others who have had burn injuries. Children from all over NZ can attend the annual camp.

Prevention

We aim to lower the incidences of burn injuries and educate people about burn prevention by:

  • Holding educational seminars for interested community groups.
  • Creating burn prevention awareness by attending appropriate community events with our display stand and relevant resources.
  • Working with other community groups such as NZ Fire Service, Safekids and Injuries Free Counties Manukau to promote injury prevention awareness.
  • Providing FREE burn prevention lessons and resources to schools, kindergartens and Kohanga Reo and other community groups in Auckland.
  • Providing FREE resources and ideas to interested teachers and schools throughout New Zealand.