Fonoifafo (Fono) McFarland-Seumanu, a South Auckland nurse making a difference in her community. Photo: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis
A clinical nurse specialist and beauty queen is working alongside Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) social workers to make the health system more accessible for young people who are already faced with a multitude of challenges.
Fonoifafo (Fono) McFarland-Seumanu's new role is the first of its kind in South Auckland.
The things that Fono and the social workers come across are lice, scabies, infected eczema, mental health issues, malnutrition, and conditions such as ADHD or poor eyesight that affect learning.
She drops prescriptions off to homes, registers babies with GPs and Plunket and even makes sure babies have a birth certificate.
Fono comes to the job with valuable knowledge. At 21 years old she said 'yes' - a small word with big impact.
"I had received a phone call from Oranga Tamariki (OT), they were looking for somebody who would be willing to take care of my nieces and nephews at the time. And I put my hand up straight away and said 'yes'," she said.
She was in her first year of nursing, still learning the ropes.
But for this former Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Islands, family comes first.
"My community is my family. My mum works in mental health and my dad is a pastor. So, through them I've learned the importance of charity, serving others, doing good to others."
Armed with everything she had learnt from her community, off she went to a meeting with OT.
"When I turned up, the children were at the Oranga Tamariki site with their bags, waiting to be picked up."
She said there is no word that could describe the feeling of seeing her nieces and nephews standing there. She felt "sad and helpless".
Fonoifafo Nancy McFarland-Seumanu. Photo: Facebook / Miss Samoa Pageant
"The only thing that I sort of had ... was the willingness to just step forward and take them home with me, which I was able to that day.
"It was a no-brainer to take them home with me at the time," she said.
The understanding was, it would be for three weeks.
"But of course, three weeks turned into three months and six months and eventually became two years," she said.
While it was tough, that time was invaluable in hindsight, she said.
"If I had had somebody in this role five years ago, while I had the five children, that would have made the world of a difference because somebody would have been there alongside me saying: 'Hey, actually, that child is not purposely misbehaving, he just cannot hear you'. Or, 'he cannot actually see'.
"It would have been super helpful to have a health professional beside me to say actually: 'You just take them to this place - you provide him with the letter, it's all funded'.
"A lot of that stuff we don't know - our families don't know. So it's real frontline primary care health issues that we can make a difference in," she said.
Low GP registration rates
A report by the Independent Children's Monitor released in February found children in state care had low GP registration rates. Almost half of children in care were not registered with a doctor.
That was a statistic Fono knew all too well.
"They were not enrolled with any of the doctors, a lot of them had appointments that they have never attended," she said.
Now she was throwing her care net even wider, working with Oranga Tamariki to make sure children had everything they needed.
"I would also like to acknowledge my big bosses like Julie Carroll, Roni Hamilton. They saw the need for a nurse specialist to be involved in this space," she said.
Fonoifafo Seumanu-Macfarland shares her story with RNZ Pacific. Photo: Supplied/Oranga Tamariki
It takes a village to make meaningful change in a young person's life, Fono believed.
Oranga Tamariki assessment social worker Scott Matapakia said having a nurse in his village made a world of a difference.
"Having Fono alongside me and having consults and stuff can actually readily prepare families for instant care, she can do those direct referrals.
"And that is now - not in a timeframe or after a process happens or wait for your appointment," Matapakia said.
It meant on the spot, tangible support for families that really worked.
"I have seen it with my caseload and what the best thing is, it's having that district health nurse come back to the social worker and actually say 'this is not working'.
"How can we work together to make sure that it is working in the future? You know, that is the instant stuff. You do not have to wait for the email at the end of a long day," he said.
Fono, the then-21-year-old trainee nurse who said 'yes' five years ago, now backed herself, worked through some really tough challenges and was able to walk alongside others as they faced challenges.
"It feels like such a full circle moment.
"I am in a position where I am able to help families that are sort of going through the same experience that I went through," she said.
Fono is currently the only nurse in this role in South Auckland, working across multiple sites, but it was the start of what many hoped to be a new way of working.
