Bruce joined the team at the Calder Health Centre in January this year, after 32 years as a GP in Manurewa.  A serendipitous series of events led brought him to the Mission, starting with an inspiring talk by Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson: 

“I heard Helen speaking about the Mission’s work at the College of GPs conference last year. She was amazing – we all stood up and clapped. Later that day, I heard a programme on the radio about homelessness. And then one of the other doctors here, who I know from the University, asked me to come and do a locum at Calder while she was away. I came in, met the staff here and really admired what they were doing.  It felt like the universe was calling me!” 

Bruce is working at Calder two days a week and he’s been getting to know the people we work with: “There’s an honesty here that’s refreshing. I see a lot of resilience in the patients, because for many of them just surviving is tough.” 

“You realise how hard being a rough sleeper is on the body – the stress of trying to navigate the streets and find food and places to sleep. So, when we see patients who are in their 30s or 40s, they’ve essentially got the body of a 50 or 60-year old.”   

“This population needs a clinic like Calder. It provides a safe harbour for people with complicated health issues who would struggle to get the support they need at other general practices. The complexity of medical problems is far beyond what you’d see in most other practices and yet we are funded the same.” 

“Calder provides all the services of a regular general practice, but in some ways, it can be more like a hospital outpatients department, an ER or a drug and alcohol service.” 

“Many of the people we see have lots of unresolved trauma and the team here make a huge effort to make sure they’re not retraumatizing people. So our patients feel safe with the staff here.”  

Despite his many years of medical experience, Bruce is still learning every day at the Mission: “There’s so much to learn here! The skillset amongst the staff at Calder is amazing and I really like being part of the bigger Mission team.” 

“This is a special place.”