Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Access: The Meltdown, in reply to Craig Young,
Service user discrimination against all people with disabilities is illegal under the Human Rights Act 1993.
Hiya Craig.
Thanks for giving me the best laugh I've had in simply ages and ages and ages.
Even 'services' that have been specifically designed for disabled people consistently refuse to accept that this group of Kiwis actually have rights.
And remember, the government legislated away the right for disabled Kiwis to take one of their more important issues back to the Human Rights Commission after nearly 13 years of successful argument that those disabled people who need disability support services actually have an entitlement to those services and the right to chose who delivers them.
Sorry to rant...but "rights" and "disabled people" in the same sentence????
The discrimination comes from the very, very top.
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Access: Family Carers Case – Five Years On, in reply to Angela Hart,
Well, after the wee exchange in the House the other day between Auntie Annette and Uncle Jonathon, I'd say don't hold your breath for any/much extra for HCSS for under 65s. The Aged Care sector is where it is at...and they have a bigger voting block so no one will want to upset them.
The Home Care sector is in some strife if this report is anything to go on.
Demand up.
Wages low.
Staff turnover high.
All that drive to up skill carers doing their level 1,2 and 3 is mostly for naught as service providers have cut costs to maintain their profit margins by NOT paying the workers who have done the courses.
Actually an interesting piece of work that...as it does echo the 'means testing' for home based care (which at the moment is sacrosanct) which the Treasury Report "Long term Care..." floats.
There is a growing
demand for home and
community support
services in an already
stretched sector which is
placing additional financial
pressure on fundersTaking steps to reduce demand by, for example, changing
service eligibility policy/rules.• The scope of services required to be delivered could be
altered to reduce staff workload and /or cost.• Capping service levels or the scope of services so that clients
must pay for additional services. This could potentially be
means-tested.• Incentivise “unpaid” family care of elderly residing with family
via a tax credit.Delloitte did this work in 2015, in response to providers' concerns over current funding sustainability.
Closer inspection shows the whole thing is a mess, with variable budget allocations for ACC, MOH and DHB as well as regional variations...which make no sense.
A cynic might suggest that there has been a deliberate plan to render the entire system dysfunctional... in order to justify the government handing the sector over to some multinational company specialising in administering taxpayer funded disability and age care.
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Another few hours of grave digging and I have found an on-line version of a speech that Ruth Dyson did in October 2001.
Relevance? Largely historical, but she does talk about the NASC system..
I’m getting very inconsistent messages about NASC around the country, including the message that for many, NASC is the main obstacle to people receiving good services rather than the entry point.
No shit, Sherlock. I wonder if Ruth realises the NASCs are worse now?
In practice, however, the concept is becoming increasingly unworkable. The process is inconsisent, and is being used as a budget manager. As NASC provider Lorna Sullivan described it recently, it has become "a gateway to limited resources", where needs "are defined from within a very limited range of possibilities identified on a standardised assessment tool".
Ho hum.
Then it gets interesting, she talks about the brandspanking new NZ Disability Strategy and how
Already it is changing the way that government departments, local authorities, service providers, NGOs and people with disabilities themselves think and work.
And since she is addressing a parents group, she talks about Objective 15, the one about valuing family and whanau, and how...
·there is debate around responsibility for caring, payment for caring and how to further recognise and value the caring role.
On this last point, you may be interested to know that I have set up an inter-departmental group to review the government's policy regarding families who apply to be paid caregivers for family members.
She reminds listeners of the impending expiry
of the government's exemption under Section 151 of the Human Rights Act at the end of 2001,
and the recent Complaints Review Tribunal decision regarding Allan and Gene Hill's complaint against the IHC and Health Funding Authority.
As you are no doubt aware, the tribunal's decision acknowledged the rights of family members, including parents, to apply to be paid caregivers for one or more of their family.
The inter-departmental group is being led by the new Ministry of Social Development, and includes officials from ACC, Health, Social Services and Employment, and Child, Youth and Family.
It will look at the criteria used by all government departments and agencies when funding caregivers, and come up with recommendations which, I hope, are fair and consistent across the board. Again, I would be very interested to hear your views.
That was 2001.
NACEW released their report in early 2008.
The case went to the Human Rights Review Tribunal in September 2008.
Labour could have fixed this before they lost the election.
I remember this case working its way through the Human Rights Review Tribunal way back when I worked for the HRC, with the Crown Law reps cock-blocking all the way. Mad bitchfacing action. And that was under Labour. I seem to recall (happy to stand corrected) that they threatened even then to just bypass the Tribunal result with legislation. So much for our democratic recall. Fuck this fucking bullshit.
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Hard News: Media Take: The Panama Papers, in reply to Alfie,
Key is the only world leader to be named in the document.
This the same Key who was, just the other day, spouting about the evils of hackers and the need to protect the innocent????
Oh! My, my, my. How we lie.
I wonder if the teflon will hold up this time?
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I'd add Hypoglycemia into the discussion about health (mental or otherwise) and nutrition.
As a young child I spent many a happy hour hooked up to a glucose drip, being hauled back from the brink.
Later, I learned to read the signs of impending trouble..
Shakiness, anxiety, nervousness
Palpitations, tachycardia
Sweating, feeling of warmth (sympathetic muscarinic rather than adrenergic)
Pallor, coldness, clamminess
Dilated pupils (mydriasis)
Hunger, borborygmus
Nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort
Headache
Central nervous system[edit]
Abnormal thinking, impaired judgment
Nonspecific dysphoria, moodiness, depression, crying, exaggerated concerns
Feeling of numbness, pins and needles (paresthesia)
Negativism, irritability, belligerence, combativeness, rage
Personality change, emotional lability
Fatigue, weakness, apathy, lethargy, daydreaming, sleep
Confusion, memory loss, lightheadedness or dizziness, delirium
Staring, glassy look, blurred vision, double vision
Flashes of light in the field of vision
Automatic behavior, also known as automatism
Difficulty speaking, slurred speech
Ataxia, incoordination, sometimes mistaken for drunkenness
Focal or general motor deficit, paralysis, hemiparesis
Headache
Stupor, coma, abnormal breathing
Generalized or focal seizures
Not all of the above manifestations occur in every case of hypoglycemia.and take appropriate measures to head it off.
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Speaker: Talking past each other:…, in reply to Rebecca Gray,
Oh this is a nicer diversion topic.
And I'm going to risk it going to shit...a bit..
About 23 years ago a friend, her hubby and nine month old daughter picked up a lovely dose of Cryptosporidium
Parents were on the mend, but not quite well enough to care for the baby...who had the worst case of nappy rash (courtesy of the bug) I have almost ever seen. Auntie Rosemary to the rescue...and by far the best treatment was no nappy, baking soda baths and some time spent with affected part in (filtered) sunlight. Two days and she came right...but..despite my bestest precautions...you guessed it...the bug got me.
To be honest...the screaming shits for four weeks was almost not as debilitating as it sounds...I simply couldn't eat anything remotely solid/fatty/meaty. I could drink fluids, and milk, but anything solid...10 minutes and it was gone. This reaction to many solid foods continued for at least six months.
I was able to function very well. Surprisingly, for someone who enjoys a good feed. I just drank heaps, ate when it was convenient(work it out...but timing was everything) and lost gobs and gobs and gobs of weight. Which, of course, I have regained much of in the ensuing years...not that it bothers me. I still can have a reaction to some red meats..
I find the whole area of gut flora (and fauna) fascinating, and I think we just might be on to something...especially if we each could figure out our own personal nutrition uptake controlling gut bug.
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Access: The Meltdown, in reply to T. Rawhiti-Forbes,
First I worked with a counsellor who specialised in helping men who were on the spectrum, and he gave me the basic building blocks for a new – or perhaps just modified – set of communication behaviours.
Many thanks for that...and a much deeper answer than I was expecting...and you closed off your sentences...is that only an issue in verbal communication?
Thinking about the paragraph I've quoted...I guess there is a difference between the way men and women communicate, (or society has an expectation that there is a difference?) so I was wondering if there are women counselors for women Aspies, or could either gender help either and tailor the therapy to match the client?
If that makes any sense?
Thanks again for your reply...
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Polity: A short history of half-baked…, in reply to Marc C,
It is time to vote these criminals out of office, as what they allowed to happen is criminal in my view.
It is time Labour and Greens make more efforts to attract and interest the missing million, there is no alternative
Funny, isn't it, that many of us are saying this but Labour and the Greens don't seem to get it?
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Hard News: Media Take: The Panama Papers, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Sorry...my mind, upon reading "proper ethics training like all nurses and doctors get", immediately and for no obvious reason flashed onto the unfortunate incident of unethical sharing of x-rays of the person who fronted up to A&E after a really unusual accident involving a fish...which, bizarrely, somehow ....fits.
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Hard News: Media Take: The Panama Papers, in reply to Sacha,
proper ethics
...as opposed to improper?