Issue 13-Newsletters-News and Publications-Disability

Disability in New Zealand
News and Publications

Disability Services Newsletter - Issue 13 - NJanuary 2006

In this issue:
Funding increases
Geraldine’s update
Pacific Disability Awareness campaign
Kimberley Day Service
DSD Consumer Participation

Funding increases

Some providers are due to receive funding increases beginning in January as a result of extra money earmarked in the 2005 Budget – particularly for residential, home support and Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination services.

The Disability Services Directorate has also received ongoing funding to contribute to providers’ extra costs arising from the introduction of the Holidays Act 2003.

A summary of planned funding increases follows.

1. The Disability Services Directorate (DSD) has decided to make a one-off backpayment to affected providers for the Holidays Act costs incurred in 2004/5. This will be done by way of a letter of agreement. About 430 letters were sent out to providers before Christmas for signing and returning. The calculation of the Holidays Act payment for each provider is based on the funding each provider received from DSD in the 2004/5 year. The payment may or may not be complete compensation for costs arising from the Holidays Act.

2. From mid-January, HealthPAC will begin sending out new contracts to residential providers of intellectual disability (ID) and physical disability (PD) community homes. DSD will be introducing a new Head Agreement for some providers at this time to bring the whole country onto the same contract documentation. The easiest way to do this will be to terminate existing contracts and ask providers to sign up to the new document.

Contract rate increases will vary significantly around the country for ID and PD community residential homes as DSD seeks to bring greater equity in pricing. These new rates will be backdated until at least 1 July 2005 and will include funding for the Holidays Act for 2005/6 and outyears.

3. From mid-February it’s expected DSD will begin sending out contract variations to aged residential care facilities who have DSD clients in their care. In general, most providers will see an increase of about 4 percent (inclusive of Holidays Act funding). Once again, as DSD attempts to bring about price consistency nationally, some providers may see larger increases while a small number of facilities may receive a lesser increase. Increases will be backdated to 1 July 2005.

4. Home Based Support Service (HBSS) providers received a 50c per hour increase in October 2005. A further similar amount is expected to be put in place after discussions between HBSS providers and the various funders (DHBs and DSD) around the establishment of travel reimbursement policies for care workers. It’s expected that this additional funding will begin to flow to the sector from late January 2006, as individual provider reimbursement policies are agreed and ratified.

5. DSD has also secured funding for South Island day programme contracts which have lower prices in comparison to other parts of the country. Contract variations have been completed for all standalone day service providers. For those that also provide residential care the prices will be updated when the residential price increases are implemented.

Geraldine’s update
Geraldine Woods
Deputy Director-General, Disability Services Directorate

Happy New Year. I can’t believe another year has whizzed by and I have been in this job nearly a year, where does time go?

A new year brings with it a renewed vigour for tackling challenges and I have a number of things on my hit list. Continuing to improve communication is one of them. This update is part of that but we are also in the process of improving our website and getting more information on it. This will be a gradual process but you might like to keep an eye on it over the next few months and see what’s being added. If you have any suggestions please forward them to disability@moh.govt.nz

Another focus for my attention is resolving the invoicing and payment issues being experienced by many of you. I want the problems fixed in the next 12 months (if not earlier).

Participants at the Pacific disability fono.

Pacific Disability Awareness campaign

A Pacific Disability Awareness campaign has been launched in Auckland aimed at improving understanding of disability issues among Pacific peoples and changing negative perceptions which link disability to punishment or a curse.

Manase Lua, Project Manager (Pacific), Disability Services Directorate says, ‘It is a widely held belief within most Pacific cultures that a disabled person has been cursed due to family wrongdoing or punished by God.

‘This negative perception is ingrained in the culture and language. For example in Samoa, blind people are often called tau’aso which means “your days are numbered”.’

He says the Pacific Disability Awareness radio campaign, which is being broadcast on Auckland’s Radio 531pi in English as well as Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands and Niuean languages, carries messages aimed at breaking down barriers and destigmatising disability in Pacific communities.

Underpinning the campaign is the vision of the New Zealand Disability Strategy, that is, New Zealand will be inclusive when people with impairments can say they live in: ‘A society that highly values our lives and continually enhances our full participation.’

The campaign features the song ‘The Other Side’ by New Zealand band Breaks Co-op and encourages people to look at disability from the other side – the perspective of the person with the lifelong impairment.

As part of the campaign a Pacific disability fono was held at the Otara Leisure Centre in South Auckland on 9 December to celebrate disabled Pacific peoples and following on from the International Day of the Disabled Person (3 December).

The Pacific Disability Awareness campaign will run until June 2006.

Kimberley Day Service

A creative video starring around 17 former Kimberley residents now living in the community, was premiered at the Kapiti Community Centre, Paraparaumu.

An enthusiastic and appreciative crowd of parents, family, wha¯nau and supporters were there, as were some Ministry of Health representatives. The former Kimberley residents, who also produced the sets and stage props, clearly enjoyed the experience of seeing themselves on the big screen. The natural doubts and reservations that some parents had held in the early days about the viability and value of the programme to close Kimberley Centre were clearly in the past.

But the film was only one aspect of what was on show from the day services that the Ministry of Health is funding as part of the support services for the new community residents. On display around the Community Centre was a photographic record of what the former Kimberley residents get up to through the day at Living + Day Services (part of the MASH Trust). They chill out at the beach with picnics, they design hats and tie days: some terrific creations. They spend time using paint, crayon and watercolour in art sessions that reflect their view of a world and of themselves that they have often been unable to share or express till now. They have ‘bubble and ball’ days: they cook, sing and take part in musical occasions and some, in the introductory songs to introduce themselves with tambourines, horns and clickers accompaniment, showed a real sense of rhythm.

Over tea and cakes families and day programme staff were agreed: ‘this is the way forward.’

DSD Consumer Participation

Representatives from 18 national disability organisations gathered in Wellington late last year for the inaugural Consumer Consortium.

The purpose of the Consortium is to increase the involvement of disabled people and their families/wha¯nau in the Disability Service Directorate’s work. The consortium also has a role in communicating information about DSD’s work to consumers as well as conveying issues back to the directorate from a consumers’ point of view.

One of the key tasks of those who took part in the two-day meeting was to give feedback on Geraldine Woods’ (Deputy Director-General DSD) proposed vision for the directorate that is supporting people to achieve an ordinary and good home life. The Consortium was asked what the indicators of an ordinary and good home life would be. Members were also encouraged to discuss this with the disability organisations they represent. The 18 disability organisations involved in the Consortium are:

Neurological Alliance
Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
NZ Association of Blind Citizens
NZ Hearing Association
Autism NZ
Ngati Kapo o Aotearoa
People First
Deaf Association
NZ Federation of Deaf Children
Brain Injury Association
Parent to Parent
Carers NZ
IHC advocacy
New Zealand Crippled Children Society (NZ CCS)
Cerebral Palsy Society
Pacific Information Advocacy Support Services Trust (PIASS Trust)
Petesa Trust.

Watch out for details about a series of consumer forums planned to take place around the country March/April 2006. The details of when and where will be provided to disability organisations including those listed above, on the Ministry of Health website www.moh.govt.nz/disability, and www.weka.net.nz once they are finalised.

Document availability

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Disability Services Newsletters: Issue 13 - January 2006 (PDF, 234 kB)

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Ministry of Health publications

Unless otherwise specified, you can obtain copies of all Ministry of Health publications from:

Ministry of Health
C/o Wickliffe Limited
PO Box 932
DUNEDIN
Tel: (04) 496 2277 (Wellington)
Fax: (03) 479 0979 (Dunedin)
Email: moh@wickliffe.co.nz

Ministry of Health publications are also available on our website: www.moh.govt.nz

Related information

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