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Health of Older People Strategy
www.moh.govt.nz/publications/hops

Date of publication: April 2002

On this page:

Health of Older People Strategy available online in full text

Health of Older People Strategy

Summary of the Strategy

Summary analysis of submissions received on the draft Health of Older People Strategy

The draft Strategy

Hard copies of these publications can be ordered from:
Ministry of Health Publications
c/- Wickliffe Ltd
PO Box 932, Dunedin
or by phone 04 496 2277
Health of Older People Strategy

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Introduction


The Vision
Older people participate to their fullest ability in decisions about their health and wellbeing and in family, whanau and community life. They are supported in this by co-ordinated and responsive health and disability support programmes.
The Objectives
The following eight objectives identify areas where change is essential if the vision is to be achieved.

1. Older people, their families and whanau are able to make well-informed choices about options for healthy living, health care and/or disability support needs.

2. Policy and service planning will support quality health and disability support programmes integrated around the needs of older people.

3. Funding and service delivery will promote timely access to quality integrated health and disability support services for older people, family, whanau and carers.

4. The health and disability support needs of older Maori and their whanau will be met by appropriate, integrated health care and disability support services.

5. Population-based health initiatives and programmes will promote health and wellbeing in older age.

6. Older people will have timely access to primary and community health services that proactively improve and maintain their health and functioning.

7. Admission to general hospital services will be integrated with any community-based care and support that an older person requires.

8. Older people with high and complex health and disability support needs will have access to flexible, timely and co-ordinated services and living options that take account of family and whanau carer for people who are disabled.

Implementing the strategy

Both the Ministry of Health and DHBs have responsibility for implementing the Health of Older People Strategy. Appendix 2 provides a summary of the actions and key steps under each of the eight objectives. The Ministry’s timelines for completing the actions and key steps it is responsible for are set out in the strategy, where these are known. While DHBs will need to implement the strategy by 2010, milestone dates have not been given. Each DHB will determine how and when it will implement the strategy by 2010 and will signal this in its annual plans.

Some DHBs, predominantly those with high numbers or proportions of older people, have already established working groups to plan for and develop integrated services for older people. Canterbury and Northland DHBs are ‘early leaders’, working with the Ministry on the development of the integrated continuum of care approach. The process and outcomes of this work will provide guidance to other DHBs.

The strategy also poses challenges to service providers and health sector workers to change the way services are delivered to meet the needs of older people. The Ministry of Health and DHBs will work closely with these groups on ways they can contribute to a more integrated approach to health and disability support programmes for older people.

The Ministry of Health will monitor DHBs’ progress on the implementation of the Health of Older People Strategy against their annual plans. The Ministry will also undertake three-yearly reviews of progress to coincide with Ministry of Social Development status reports on implementing the Positive Ageing Strategy (Minister for Senior Citizens 2001).


Document availability

You can download the full text of this document below in PDF format or you can read this publication online in full text HTML.

Health of Older People Strategy (PDF, 354 kB)

This publication has been converted to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). Here is a link to information on downloading and viewing PDFs.

Summary of Health of Older People Strategy (April 2002)

You can download a summary of the Strategy below in PDF format.
Summary of Health of Older People Strategy (April 2002) (PDF, 69 kB)

Summary analysis of submissions received on the draft Health of Older People Strategy (April 2002)

You can download the summary analysis of submissions below in PDF format.
Summary analysis of submissions received on the draft Health of Older People Strategy (April 2002) (PDF, 220 kB)

Consultation on the Draft Health of Older People Strategy

Date of publication: September 2001

The Government sought feedback on the proposals outlined in the draft Health of Older People Strategy: Health Sector Action to 2010 to Support Positive Ageing.

The draft Health of Older People Strategy sets out Government’s policy for the future direction of health and support services for older people. It identifies the need for significant change in the way services are provided for older people and sets out a framework for implementing those changes.

The draft Strategy sets out a demanding work programme to refocus health and support services to better meet the needs of older people now and in the future. The work programme is designed to guide planners, funders and providers of health and support services in developing an integrated continuum of care. This essentially means that the right services are provided at the right time in the right place, by the right provider.

Making the strategy a reality calls for the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards, health professionals and all with an interest in health services for older people to work together to make the changes we need by 2010.

The consultation document outlines the vision, objectives and actions needed to improve health and support services for older New Zealanders. It also contains examples of recent initiatives and background information.

The draft Health of Older People Strategy has been developed in collaboration with an expert advisory group and comment from sector reviewers. Feedback from this consultation process helped shape the final strategy, which was submitted to Cabinet early in 2002.

Submissions closed 9 November 2001.
  • Making a submission
    Submissions were encouraged both from individuals and on behalf of an organisation. Submissions were able to be made either online through this site or by post.

  • Attending Meetings
A number of public meetings were held around the country to discuss the draft Strategy. Go to information about venues and the dates of the meetings.

  • The draft Strategy

The full text of the draft Health of Older People Strategy: Health Sector Action to 2010 to Support Positive Ageing is available in the following PDF file. (Please note it is 100 pages long.)

The draft Health of Older People Strategy: Health Sector Action to 2010 to Support Positive Ageing (PDF, 567 kB)

This publication has been converted to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). Here is a link to information on downloading and viewing PDFs.
Related information

Other Ministry of Health Strategies

Health of Older People homepage

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