Bird with Arms, by Paul Walsh

Today I rode from Auckland Hospital out to Point Chevalier where we have an inpatient treatment unit which concentrates on longer admissions to promote rehabilitation from severe illness. I am impressed with the peace and quiet in this unit, and the really pleasant environment. I was impressed also with the enthusiasm of the staff I met. Having worked in the acute ward at Waitemata last year, I happened to know three of their current residents and was delighted to hear of the major recovery by someone I knew during my inpatient work ten to fifteen years ago. Its never too late to help someone.

Part of the afternoon visit entailed a short drive to where the second part of this service unit shares space with one of the Community Mental Health Centres. It is an assertive community service; originally called the Homeless Team, their clientele is less often homeless than before, and at least as seriously ill and with tenuous engagement in treatment. Their current office space is hard to describe, and I doubt if any health service other than Mental Health would be in such a place.

I saw this painted Utility Box as we started out on the short drive, and cycled past it to take this photo when I later left to come home. The box is n Carrington Road, not far from entrances to the Unitec campus. When Carrington Hospital, which was the last name given to the Victorian era psychiatric hospital originally called the Auckland Insane Asylum, was closed and sold, Unitec got a real bargain. The much vaunted 'pot of gold' which the Chair of the Hospital Board told staff would help create modern facilities, came nowhere near doing that.

The brick wall behind the box is part of the remnant of a wall (originally intended to surround the whole hospital site again) which a latter day superintendent ordered to be constructed some ten years after his predecessor had had the old walls demolished. 

Apparently, Paul Walsh ran a crowd funding project in 2013, seeking $350 to paint 10 utility boxes. The reward for a $35 sponsorship pledge was to have the sponsoring recorded on the box, and to be sent a signed sketch of the painted box. The source I read said that the project was majorly oversubscribed and something like $1,300 was raised. Which may explain why Walsh has decorated so many boxes. This one was sponsored by Julia Wehner.