Disability in New Zealand

News and Publications

e-newsletter Issue 27 - February 2009

In this issue:

• Consumer Forums
• DDG update
• Consumer Consortium
• Training and Leadership Fund
• Frozen Funds Charitable Trust Grants
• Transfer of Day Services to MSD
• Governments Response to Select Commitee Inquiry

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Consumer Forum/Hui/Fono

The Ministry of Health’s Disability Support Services (DSS) Group is visiting towns and cities throughout New Zealand to find out how the disability support system is working for disabled people, their families, whanau and carers. These meetings provide an opportunity for you to talk to us about the disability support services we fund and to share your ideas and priorities for the future provision of services.

The Deputy Director-General of Health and Disability National Services, Geraldine Woods, will be attending many of the meetings along with other staff from the DSS. Registration is preferred prior to the day to ensure adequate resources are available, however you are also welcome to just turn up. For further information or to register please contact your local disability information centre, call free on 0800 373 664 or email dsdforum@moh.govt.nz

The meetings will be held in:

Date	Event	Time	Venue
3 March 2009	Hamilton forum	11am-1pm & 7-9pm	Glenview Conference Centre, Ohaupo Rd
4 March 2009	Hamilton hui	10am-2pm	Kirikiriroa Marae, Dey St, Hamilton
5 March 2009	Kaikohe hui	10.15am-2.15pm	Parawhnua Marae, 20 Te Ahu Rd, Ohaewai
17 March 2009	Auckland Forums	11am-1pm & 7-9pm	Barrycourt, 10 Gladstone Rd, Parnell
18 March 2009	Sth Auckland Hui	10am-2pm	Te Puea Marae, 41 Miro Rd, Mangere Bridge
19 March 2009	Sth Auckland fono	10am-2pm	Otahuhu Town Hall Community Centre, High St
31 March 2009	Invercargill forum	11am-1pm	Working Mens Club, 154 Esk St, Invercargill
1 April 2009	Dunedin forum	11am-1pm & 7-9pm	Edgar Centre, Portsmouth Dr
2 April 2009	Christchurch forum	11am-1pm & 7-9pm	Wai-Ora Trust, 48 Watsons Rd, Harewood
7 April 2009	Wellington forum	11am-1pm & 7-9pm	Wellington Town Hall, 111 Wakefield St
8 April 2009	Wellington hui	11am-3pm	Waiwhetu Marae, 4 Puketapu Gr, L. Hutt
21 April 2009	Rotorua hui	10am-2pm	Tunohopu Marae, 5 Tunohopu St, Ohinemutu
22 April 2009	Gisborne hui	10am-2pm	Te Poho o Rawhiri Marae, Ranfurly St, Kaiti
23 April 2009	Hastings hui	10am-2pm	Te Aranga Marae, 1 Boston Cres, Flaxmere
30 April 2009	Wellington fono	10am-2pm	The Hub Conference Rm, 6 Hagley St, Porirua

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DDG Update

Geraldine Woods
Deputy Director-General
Health & Disability National Services

We are now in full swing for 2009. I hope you all had a great break over the summer and are back refreshed and ready for another year.

Transition planning for moving to the new structure for Disability Support Services is well underway (an update on this is in the newsletter). This new structure is based around service rather than geographical lines and will help us to ensure that the Disability Support Services Group is working more effectively together and with the sector to plan for and fund services that are outcome-focused and allow disabled people more flexibility and choice.

On Feb 9 the new government announced its commitment to put in place some of the recommendations, within current economic constraints, from the Select Committee’s report on disability services that was released in September 2008. The government is setting up a high-level Ministerial committee chaired by Minister for Disability Issues, Paula Bennett, to oversee progress. (more information is in the newsletter).

I look forward to meeting a number of you at the upcoming round of consumer forums and to continuing to work towards a disability support system that ensures disabled people can live in their home and participate in the community as other New Zealanders do.

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Update on the restructure of the Disability Support Services Group (DSS)

As you will have seen in the last newsletter, Disability Support Services has recently undergone a restructure. The new structure focuses the delivery of our work around the types of services we fund rather than on the previous geographical structure. The purpose of the restructure was to align our services, which will enhance the way we work with the disability sector and to help ensure that we are working as effectively as possible in planning for and funding disability support services, from a national perspective of service delivery.

The new Disability Support Services Group came into being on 1 December 2008.

A great deal of the transition work is already underway. The transition process is happening in phases. The first phase includes the handover of work, systems and processes between teams and is due to completed 2 March 2009. Where a provider’s Contract Relationship Manager is changing that provider will be notified over the next few weeks. In the meantime, until you hear otherwise, please deal with your current Contract relationship Manager.We will keep you updated as the transition process continues. In the meantime if you have any queries you can email disability@moh.govt.nz or leave a message on 0800 373 664. Providers please contact your Contract Relationship Manager.


View full sized Disability support services organisational chart

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Consumer Consortium

Disability Support Services want disabled people and their families/whanau to participate in their activities. In September 2005, a number of national disability consumer organisations were invited to a meeting to discuss setting up a group which was to be called the Consumer Consortium.The attendees at this meeting endorsed the proposal. Membership has grown and the following organisations will be members of the Consortium in 2009: Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, NZ Association of Blind Citizens, NZ Hearing Association, Autism NZ, Ngati Kapo NZ, People First NZ, Deaf Association of New Zealand, NZ Federation of Deaf Children, Brain Injury Association, Parent to Parent NZ, Carers NZ, IHC Advocacy, CCS Disability Action, Cerebral Palsy Society, PIASS Trust, Rescare NZ, Mana Turi, Deaf Blind Association, Huntingtons Association, Down Association.

The Consumer Consortium works with Disability Support Services on an advisory /strategic level in the following
areas:

• Providing input and advice to Disability Support Services on its annual planning processes and development of policy and services
• Providing a link for support and communication between Disability Support Services and the people who receive the services that it funds.

The Consortium meets two or three times a year for two days. The first consortium in 2009 will be held on March 26 and 27 in Wellington.

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Training and Leadership Fund - Consumers

In 2008 Disability Services allocated $500,000 to a Training and Leadership Fund - Consumers, which aimed to foster leadership for disabled people by disabled people within the disability sector. The purpose of the training was to assist disabled people to become more confident to manage their own supports.

The funding was one-off funding for projects. Five organisations were allocated funding for a range of exciting projects. The following articles update us on the projects as reported by the organisations.

Standards and Monitoring Services (SAMS)

Standards and Monitoring Services (SAMS) was pleased to receive funding from the Consumer Training and Leadership Fund. This financial support contributed to the facilitation of the fourth Partners In Policymaking®
course. The 2008 Partners course saw five self-advocates and six family members join the growing number of Partner graduates who are committed to increasing the involvement of disabled people and their families in policy and system development.The course provides participants with information around existing policy and services. Most importantly, the course provides opportunities for participants to develop approaches, awareness and skills which enables them to more effectively influence policy and service development.

With increased confidence participants were able to share their views. They met with local MPs, wrote articles for newsletters, made submissions to the select committee, spoke on radio, and one has been cast in a TV
commercial.

During graduation, course participants were inspired by previous graduate David Senior. David has become a local City Councillor, and spoke of how the Partners In Policymaking course had further motivated him to take action.

Some of the views shared by participants through their graduation presentation are as follows:
“We leave this class better equipped to face the challenges ahead, confident that we can make a difference and assist people with disabilities to live ‘an Ordinary Life’…or better still an Extraordinary Life.” D Corner

“Coming on this course has given me clarity, broadened my knowledge and given me the confidence and skills to take action and positively influence many different areas of my life.” S Parker

“I learned that people with disabilities are better suited to inform other people or organisations about issues concerning disabilities, than their parents or guardians.” R Glenn

“I have been challenged to think beyond my personal horizons.” D Shaw

“Going on this course has made me want to get out there and support people with disabilities. I would really recommend this course to other people – it changes lives!!!” S HaigSAMS is committed to offering opportunities for disabled people and families to gain the skills needed to be effective leaders. SAMS anticipates a further course in 2009 will continue to build on the existing network of enthusiastic and skilled individuals working for positive change. Contact samsmb@xtra.co.nz for more information.

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Deaf Community talking plain with the Training and Leadership Fund

Building the capacity for the Deaf community to communicate and access information on the internet through New Zealand’s third official language, New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) is what the Deaf Association has been funded for under the Ministry of Health’s Training and Leadership Fund.

The funding will provide improved capacity within the Deaf Association website to carry large volumes of video so that Deaf community can share information in their own visual language – NZSL.

The internet is all about getting information out to everyone. With video becoming so much more usable on the internet we are now at the stage where NZSL can take its place beside written English as a usable
language.

The Deaf Association will provide access to video cameras, simple studios and to editing software that will enable the Deaf Community to upload material of interest to them. Organisations interested in communicating with the Deaf community will also be able to access these resources to provide more information in NZSL to them.

Highly produced video has a place but it is expensive. This initiative is all about providing access to a high volume of information that Deaf people currently miss out on. It will be presented in a simple manner but the quality of consumer technology today means that it will be clearly understandable. The Deaf Association very much hopes that organisations will make extensive use of this resource and look forward to the opportunity to provide government, business and community organisations with the capacity to make their information readily available in a more costeffective manner.’

Most exciting of all is that the Deaf community will have the space and resources to tell their own stories, in their own language, for their own community. We can’t wait! And of course many thanks to the Ministry of Health for this opportunity.

Contact tony.blackett@deaf.co.nz for more information.

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Southern People First Office Training

By Graeme Parish and Stewart Haig, and Alexandra Gilbert – the office trainer

This project is about training a team of people to work in the new People First Southern Office. Two of our members come in on Wednesday morning, two others come in on Thursday morning. We are trained by a paid trainer. The project runs for a year and started in July 2008.

We are learning to use the computer to write reports of the meetings and events we go to. We are also learning to use the internet to find out information and to email and network with other groups. We also post our reports on the People First NZ website.

We are learning how to do the office accounts on the computer and how to plan our work. We answer the phone and are in the process of organising our own signs for the office.Graeme says: “I am learning how an office works. I am also learning skills and how to become more independent to do things myself in the office. People First is all about us doing as much of the work as we can. We know we will have to be supported by a support person, but this project shows we can do a lot more than people think we can.”

Stewart says: “I am enjoying coming to the office and learning new skills I never had before. I wish I could come every day. I have so much more confidence to talk out in the real world and to help people with learning disabilities to speak up for their rights and to get their voice heard in the community.”

Robyn says: “I love coming to the office so much. Every time I learn something new I feel so good about myself. It’s a shame my friend Hayden has been so ill, because we help each other”.

Alexandra says: “As their trainer, I have been so inspired by how fast they have learned. We had to have ways of keeping track of what people needed to learn and what they had learned and we do this as a team.

Graeme and Stewart are now using tape recorders for their thoughts and Robyn has just learned to audio-type – this will make the team more independent still”.

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Standards Plus

We are holding four weekend workshops directed primarily at disabled people and their families, although anyone who is interested in thinking differently about the future for disabled people is welcome to attend.

The theme for the workshops is “Seeking a Good Life: your life, your vision’. The first day of the two day workshop will focus on the question of how a good life might be defined? It will look at the importance of
holding a vision of a positive future. People will share their stories of what a good life looks like to them and how they have gone about achieving the life they desire.

On the second day people will work in smaller groups where we will look at some of the challenges that need to be mastered and some of the tools and opportunities available, if a good life is to happen. This will include how to make needs assessment work for you, and how to take charge and exercise greater autonomy over your life and the services you receive. We will look at Individualised Funding and the critical role of friendships and relationships including the challenges of parenting. This session will begin to explore some of the ways in which families and allies can become more proactive in helping to develop and maintain friendships particularly for people who are vulnerable to loneliness and isolation.We have chosen to go to geographic areas where opportunities of this type are seldom offered. We will be in Napier 28th/29th March, Invercargil 18th/19th April, Nelson 2nd/3rd May and Whakatane 23rd/24th May. We
are now thinking about what might be useful to people by way of follow up and have begun to develop a resource for families on “seeking a good life.” This is shaping up into a publication with practical worksheets.

Contact lorna@imaginebetter.co.nz for more information.

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CCS Disability Action

When CCS Disability Action heard about the proposed funding opportunities from the Ministry of Health for training and leadership of disabled people, we were excited. The Ministry was calling for ways to support disabled people to manage their current and future supports successfully. We at CCS Disability Action believe this is about having the skills and mandate to take leadership of our own lives.

We were successful in obtaining funding to run 10 workshops. Five of these are specifically for disabled Maori and their whanau. Five of these are for anyone who wishes to attend. CCS Disability Action, People
First and Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) are delighted to be able to work together to run the five workshops for disabled Maori, using the strength of Maori tikanga. These workshops will be held on marae and we will be able to showcase accessible whare in the process. All workshops will focus on the strengths and leadership potential of disabled people.

The workshops are about telling our stories. They will be focused on what we as disabled people do well, as we manage the variety of supports we encounter day to day. To do this well CCS Disability Action, People First and DPA were keen to do two things. One was to use the principles of Appreciative Inquiry. This methodology highlights people’s successes and what we can learn from these, in order to create new strategies for ourselves to move forward. The other was to have disabled people lead the workshops.

Therefore, rather than having formalised training sessions, we are having facilitated conversations about the stories we want to share from our lives. These stories and what we learn from them could be about
talking with our families, finding support to participate in a neighbourhood meeting or knowing what to do if we are unhappy about a support worker we use. The workshops will be held in Auckland, Northland, Taranaki, Canterbury and Waikato-Bay of Plenty starting in March. If you have any questions please contact Ruth Jones at CCS Disability Action – ruth.jones@ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz or contact your local DPA or People First group.

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Frozen Funds Charitable Trust

Purpose of the Frozen Funds Charitable Trust is to provide grants for projects run by and for people who use mental health or intellectual disability services. The Trust distributes up to $300,000 per year. The theme for 2009 is creative, educational or advocacy projects that promote full participation and citizenship for people who use menatl health or intellectual disability services. The proposed projects must be:

• Applied for by charitable organisations OR by charitable organisations on behalf of individuals or groups without charitable status
• Directed by people who use, or have used, mental health or intellectual disability services
• Completed within a finite period of time.

Projects focusing on youth and young adults are particularly welcome and preference will be given to projects which would not normally be funded through government.Expression of Interest forms can be downloaded from www.frozenfunds.co.nz or requested from Public Trust.

Completed forms must be received by Public Trust on or before 30 March 2009.

For more information go to www.frozenfunds.co.nz, or contact Cheryl Mennie on
Phone: 04 978 4558 or 0800 371 471
Email: cheryl.mennie@publictrust.co.nz
Post: Public Trust Special Business, PO Box 5067, Wellington

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Transfer of Day Services to the Ministry of Social Development

In October 2008, the then Government agreed that the Ministry of Social Development should be responsible for funding vocational services for people with physical, sensory and intellectual impairments. As a consequence, the Ministry of Health’s day services contracts, and their associated funding, would be transferred to the Ministry of Social Development. The transfer would bring vocational services for these people together under one funding agency to enable a more coherent use of resources and a stronger focus on employment.

Excluded from the transfer is services for people who are care recipients under the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003 (Act), which will remain with the MoH. In addition, further consideration will be given to whether services for people with an intellectual disability and high and complex needs who are not care recipients under the Act should be transferred to MSD.

In February 2009, however, the Ministers of Health and Social Development announced that the transfer had been put on hold for three months to allow further discussions with the disability sector. The Ministers indicated that the deferral was in response to concerns raised by the sector about the transfer, and they wanted to take time to get the decisions right based on what is best for people using day services. These discussions will be led by the MSD, with support from MoH.

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Government’s Response to the Select Committee’s “Inquiry into the Quality of Care and Services Provision for People with Disabilities”.

On Monday, 9 February 2009, the Government presented its response to the Report of the Social Services Select Committee’s on its “Inquiry into the Quality of Care and Services Provision for People with Disabilities”. The Government’s Response can be found at:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Papers/3/1/d/49DBHOH_PAP17698_1-Government-Response- to-Report-of-the-Social-Services.htm

The Response indicates that the Government supports the underlying intention of the Select Committee’s recommendations of introducing a citizenship based model for disability supports that improve disabled
people’s ability to live an everyday life through giving them increased choice and control over the supports they receive and the lives they lead. The Government supports the Ministry of Health’s moves to expand access to supported independent living and individualised funding.

The Government Response outlines a large work programme that moves towards this objective. The Government expects to make progress on the work programme during 2009. The work programme will be
overseen by a newly established Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues that has been established to improve Ministerial-level coordination on disability issues. The work programme will consider such issues as:

• How can we improve government agency responsiveness to disabled people?
• How can we improve the way in which government agencies that fund disability supports operate together?
• How might Local Area Coordination-type processes work in New Zealand?
• Is it desirable and feasible to implement quality of life monitoring of residential disability care under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001?
• Is it desirable and feasible to make contract-based development evaluations of disability services publicly available in a way that adequately protects the privacy of service users and their families?
• How can the Ministry of Health provide people with increased assurance that Needs Assessment and Service Coordination organisations treated people consistently?
• How might the government support less formal types of advocacy?
• How existing complaints services might be made better known, easier to use, and better coordinated?
• How should the work programme resulting from the Government Response be monitored?

The scope of issues to be considered and the current fiscal climate means that the Ministerial Committee will need to prioritise the order in which it considers these issues. In deciding on priorities, the focus will be on steps that make the biggest difference to disabled people’s ability to live an everyday life and to have increased choice and control over what they do.

The Government Response indicates that structural change, such as appointing a lead agency, is not favoured. Such a lead agency raises complex administrative, financial and legal issues that would be difficult to resolve effectively and in a timely manner. Further, significant structural change such as this is likely to be costly to carry out and distract officials from making changes that improve disabled people’s ability to live an everyday life.

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