Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem
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Setting up the company may be a legal thing - I imagine there is some risk for such a service. Carers NZ is a peak body, not a service provider. This is a new service by a new service provider.
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Another issue to make submissions on (as if we didn't have enough to do!). The Justice review on family violence could be detrimental for adults with autism etc who are susceptible to sensory related meltdowns. There is already a major lack of support for them and their families. But it is a good chance to tell the government about the realities. Thanks to community campaigner Mike Grigg of Wainuiomata who has already raised the issue in this recent article.
Info about the review and link to (very large) discussion document. Responses due 18 September.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/fresh-look-family-violence-laws
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http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/353203/city-seen-ideal-disability-centre
Paul Gibson.....
Disability studies involves a completely different way of thinking about disability. So it's not the traditional way of thinking in the medical or clinical way, but thinking about disability as a human rights issue, as a natural, inherent part of being human and with the leadership by disabled people.''
New Zealand used to be considered a world leader on disability action, but not any more.
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"New Model" evaluation reports available here....
http://www.nzdsn.org.nz/Blogs/481/60/evaluation-reports-on-new-model-now-available/
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Angela Hart, in reply to
And the Funded Family Care evaluation has just been released for your entertainment, edification and delight
http://www.health.govt.nz/publication/evaluation-funded-family-care
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walrus, in reply to
Wow, the topic doesn't even rate a proper proof-reader, it would seem. #signofthetimes
It's eerie hearing my words echo in this report; I seem to have been pretty much the only FFC "caree" able and willing to speak to these researchers.
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Thanks for these reports. At least some reports and evaluations don't end up in a big black hole. Worth keeping to check back on in 10 years time and see if anything has changed.
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Angela Hart, in reply to
I wish I could take the long view Hilary, but I can't. These are people's lives that are being impacted, now and for the foreseeable future. It is totally unacceptable to see and hear all the fine words about the New Model knowing that in practice today for most people they mean nothing. Nada. Zilch.
How did Metge put it? Talking past each other. For people with high and complex needs the cultural disconnect is like the Grand Canyon, except that the authorities haven't even noticed it's there. I'd so love to show them in a very experiental way!In my opinion there is a significant difference in the quality of the two sets of evaluations linked to. It's very interesting to compare.
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I have to declare a small conflict of interest in the New Model evaluation. Many years ago when the tender came up I advised Evalue Research about some of the background and a suitable disability representative. When that representative got another job (hint - he has written posts here) I and others recommended Martin Sullivan replace him. A couple of years ago I helped set up some of the interviews although I didn't participate in any of them. I haven't read the final report but I respect the skills of that team.
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Another example of the yawning chasm between what should be provided and what is. Only because the media got involved does the agency shift its inhuman and surely incorrect position
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/humiliated-and-homeless-one-news-reveals-disabled-man-s-desperate-living-situation-q07605 -
A later piece provides more detail
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/71512048/mother-and-disabled-son-offered-house-after-five-monthsThe claim that they were bumped off the list in error is all too common and not good enough.
Kudos to the kind HNZ tenant who gave these people a place to live and advocated on their behalf. -
Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
And the Funded Family Care evaluation has just been released for your entertainment, edification and delight
Thanks for posting this Angela....Whew, clearly the researchers put plenty of effort into attempting to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse...albeit a purse that few people seem to want to pick up.
At a first reading ...pure bullshittery.
" Bullshittery " being a wonderful word recently repopularised by the dearly departed Dita Di.
I have many questions regarding Funded family Care
1. Funding for 1600 disabled people to have family (other than spouses and partners) as their paid carer. Why only 191 recipients???
2. The Miserly of Health claimed in 2008 that there were...
http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHRRT/2010/1.html
But it was evident (and agreed by the parties) that there is a significant number of people with severe disabilities who do not receive Ministry funded disability support services – this group could total up to 29,000 in all.
...29000 severely disabled people being cared for by unpaid family....
where the bloody hell are they????
More bullshittery.
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Min. of Health, Dep. Dir.-Gen., OIA rqst, social bonds, transfered fr. MSD, reply, 25.08.15.pdf
So far progress seems slow with the much hailed "social impact bonds", as a recently obtained OIA response shows (from a trusted source).
This is what the Ministry's website has for informatin:
http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/social-bonds-new-zealand-pilot/social-bonds-progress-dateThey are moving slowly but determinedly, it seems.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
More bullshittery.
from the Report...
‘ think it comes back to the attitude of the officials who designed the adjustable parts
of this policy in the way they did and I think that they should be ashamed of
themselves. And I hope you quote me on that. … I think that the culture of the
Ministry and the way they wrote their rules, the culture of the way they think, their
culture of suspicion and mistrust of carers is that, you know, you’re fine if you’re
doing it for nothing but suddenly you’re a greedy, grasping, potential fraudster if we
are going to give you a few hours at minimum wage? … The way they [the Ministry]
are acting is the worst possible example of a really 1950s highly bureaucratic, tick-all the-boxes
mentality. They don’t have to do that, but they choose to do it.You know, the Misery of Health and the Government responded in the most punitive manner possible to the outcome of the Family Carers Case.
They achieved a level of bureaucratic malevolence worthy of a fascist administration with casual disregard for basic human rights.
I wonder, sometimes, if the low uptake amounts to a boycott.
Is there a mechanism whereby FFC participants can communicate with each other...and perhaps organise....in the militant sense of the word?
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Angela Hart, in reply to
Is there a mechanism whereby FFC participants can communicate with each other...and perhaps organise....in the militant sense of the word?
Unfortunately, no not really. The natural mechanism should be CarersNZ but there are good reasons many of us don't trust that group to advocate well for us. The same applies to other caregiver groups, the most likely ones rely on government funding, which currently has the consequence of gagging them. While FFC carers could set up their own Facebook page, the group it attracted would no doubt be seduced in the same way.
The only DPOs doing decent advocacy right now are CCS and IHC, with perhaps DPA starting to regain some of its mana in that area too. Family carers and their benefit to their disabled kin are incidental to the focus of these groups, not a priority.In addition, of course, those who have FFC are pretty busy managing care and support for some of the highest need band of people. The disability support needs of the people cared for are more urgently and critically important than the financial needs of their whanau. Although of course, if the family is on a more secure financial footing, that reduces stress and potentially broadens the horizons of the disabled person too.
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Hilary Stace, in reply to
You could set up a closed Facebook Group. Or even an open one. Some staunch collective advocacy from some Facebook groups for parents of those with autism or kids with special needs generally has recently forced the Ministry of Education to run well-attended angry meetings around the country on the previously almost secretive special education update.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
generally has recently forced the Ministry of Education to run well-attended angry meetings around the country on the previously almost secretive special education update.
Oh yes!
Now that's what I'm talking about!
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Seems to be the season for it....
from Manawanui, indicating that IF is cheaper in the long run.
Now, if only MOH:DSS clients could pay their family carers through IF...
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walrus, in reply to
Now, if only MOH:DSS clients could pay their family carers through IF...
Hell, I would have taken my family carer being permitted to seek employment through an agency to provide my care! The agencies could then have screened prospective family carers for suitability the same way they (should) do other applicants, monitored the performance of those family carers they employed, checked for abuse, etc... Instead we have this separate and entirely unequal system that results in my family carer being paid less than she could be if she weren't family, for fewer hours, with a bunch of stupid restrictions (like a limit on how many hours she can work AT ANY JOB/S each week), and intrusive visits from NASC workers to ensure that the influence of all those enticing minimum wage dollars hasn't inexorably driven her to abuse me. But clearly they did not want to do it in a simple or sensible (or fair) way.
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Sacha, in reply to
The only DPOs doing decent advocacy right now are CCS and IHC
They are both service providers, not counted as DPOs under the UN Convention framework. They do seem to be actually saying stuff in public on behalf of their prime stakeholder groups: users of their services and their families. Unlike the actual DPOs on behalf of theirs.
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Nicky Wagner, Minister for Disability Issues (for her sins) wants feedback on the 2014-18 Disability Action Plan.
Well, for a start Nicky...you could have a read of this....
http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsl0TAZAFn%2fysap%2b9nlo7rkvRmNJ6uyxoc44CPcdshSIzpSxW%2bwhPoD0WnpuECahTAQtdCX5Yjd%2btcuc1aJHm%2fCSIyN13jMcmmBwFgKgSEgah...and maybe just work your way through the recommendations.
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Talking about policy and disability, there was some interesting questioning happening in Parliament yesterday. We got a first glimpse of what can be expected to be delivered as a kind of “evaluation report” on new, outsourced, contracted social security programs, such as the so-called ‘Mental Health Employment Services’ and also the ‘Sole Parent Employment Service’. I bet it will be made public on Christmas Eve, when most will be firmly focused on planning their summer holidays, and on preparing the Christmas celebrations. But have a watch and listen of this question that Carmel Sepuloni, Labour spokesperson on social development, put to the Associate Minister questerday:
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/39670
So the “trials” for “Mental Health Employment Services”, and apparently even for “Sole Parent Employment Services”, appear to have been an abysmal failure. This is according to information obtained under the OIA and received on 04 September this year.
This was already becoming somewhat evident, when an earlier OIA request was responded to by MSD earlier this year, but which few appear to have taken note of, although it was made available via a post on a blog in April 2015:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/mental-health-and-sole-parent-employment-services-msd-withholds-o-i-a-information-that-may-prove-their-trials-a-failure/Here is a downloaded PDF version, easier to read, with that same post:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mhes-spes-msd-withholds-o-i-a-info-that-may-prove-trials-a-failure-post-nzsjb-final-14-04-2015.pdfWith other more recent OIA responses that were received, and that are also now presented in a blog post, it is also becoming apparent, that there is NO real, convincing EVIDENCE that MSD could present on supposed “medical scientific research” that prove the “health benefits” of paid work in open employment, and also the supposed harm to health caused by “worklessness”. Thus we can assume that the whole, much hailed welfare reform program, started by Bennett and English, is now falling to pieces:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/msd-and-dr-david-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-claiming-worklessness-causes-poor-health/The MSM does not seem to take note of all these developments, that is so far. Perhaps they can bother reading some real information that deserves to be reported on, besides of the Rugby World Cup, the Red Peak and flag debate, and what else there is.
So “wicked policy problems” remain, and remain unresolved, I fear.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
So “wicked policy problems” remain, and remain unresolved, I fear.
...and that would be the fear of many of us Marc.
You know, there is an easier, and probably cheaper, method of reducing the number of beneficiaries.
ALL those who are willing and able to do paid work should front up to WINZ and say...
...and they should get a job.
A job that pays a Living Wage, with fair and equitable conditions.
The taxes, willingly paid by these valued and respected workers, will go towards paying a respectful income to those who are not able to work.
Those few people who are unwilling, but able to work....well, those folk will always be with us.
And we pay ridiculous salaries to MPs and bureaucrats...so whats a few more snouts in the trough?
Yes, I know, a simplistic little suggestion...
Respect, Marc, for pushing this issue.
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Do we need to panic?
One of at least a dozen high level positions being advertised on the Misery Of Health webpage.
Chief People & Transformation Officer
Posted on 11-Jan-2016Application Close Date: 22-Jan-2016“The Ministry is about to embark on a transformational journey that will see us step up and work more closely with the health and disability sector… To lead through the transformational change required, I need a strong, highly effective Executive team, with the right accountabilities, capabilities and mind-set, that opts into the challenge of creating sustainable change… We need to change our mindset and behaviors so we can better support the Ministry and the broader health and disability system to be successful … Being strategically focused, collaboration at the senior table and across multiple stakeholders is critical.” Chai Chuah – Director-General of Health and Chief Executive
A particularly broad role with a substantial sector focus, which is certainly a far cry from the “run of the mill” GM HR function. You will have ownership of health and disability system-wide leadership and talent development, workforce analytics & planning and employment relations, while also ensuring that the Ministry’s human resources, leadership, culture and organisational development functions are delivered effectively.
What does Chai Chua mean by "transformational journey"...?
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
The Job Description contains a term I had to look up...
"maze bright"....http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111130/what-does-maze-bright-mean
A vagueish definition...of a term with its roots in Heron and Skinner...the rats in the maze people.
Political savvy • Can manoeuvre through complex political situations effectively.
• Is sensitive to how people and organisations function.
• Anticipates where the land mines are and plans approach accordingly.
• Views politics as a necessary part of organisational life and works to adjust to that reality; is a ‘maze-bright’ person.Oh! This is going to be goood...
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