Remembering February 22, 2011

For Canterbury District Health Board's (CDHB) current acting executive director of nursing (EDoN), Becky Hickmott, the memories and images of that day remain vivid The next night saw Hickmott working at the Civil Defence operations centre at the Art Gallery as a health liaison coordinator, helping triage the high number of requests coming in as rescuers went through damaged neighbourhoods Hickmott said what the service learnt was that there could be a lull in the immediate aftermath of such traumatic events - "the needs come later" - so mental health services were always looking ahead to patient flow