Posts by Rosemary McDonald
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Tom Adson,
Tom Adson.
I admire your efforts, and I do understand your frustration....but could you please remove my details from your contacts list?
When I receive an unsolicited email with a list of other recipients that takes up half a page...I am tempted to treat it a spam and report it as such.
I also don't wish to be a party to any replies you get....though the one that popped into my inbox the other day sounded like a good idea.
Good luck.
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After watching this... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/gossip/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501135&objectid=11523987 (I only watched it just now)
Let him come, I say, and he can hob nob with the Bishop wherever that footage was filmed....on the edge of the fiery pit.
Good god...what was that in the background?
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Access: Social media, disability…, in reply to Sacha,
If they were assessed on actual results achieved per dollar,
Very good point.
Has this been done?
Does anyone know if the NASCs' funding is per client, per client depending on SNL, per refferral to a Service provider, per $$$ amount of client's support package (i.e. actually accessed not just allocated)???
What are their KPIs?
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Another bit of advice when being forced to deal with a NASC is to either insist that all communication is done via email, or even record the conversation if on a phone call.
They appear to keep notes on the call they make to you...but not the calls you make to them
And not the calls where you (as the 24/7 carer of someone with a very high SNL) tell them you are sick and are too scared to go to the doctor because you know a visit to hospital will be the result. "Who is going to provide the care he needs?"
Or, five years later when the dreaded visit to the doctor can no longer be put off (and he sends you straight to A&E) and you have major surgery booked within the week...and apart from a few hours per day the primary carer will be a recent school leaver. You distinctly remember saying to the coordinator that 'if I die on the table...you guys are going to have to step up and organise some long term care'.
No record of these conversations. No quick phone call while I was in hospital to check that Peter was being properly supported in my absence. No offer of any home help or support while I was recovering from major abdominal surgery. Bearing in mind the support carer we had hired refused to do any transfers.
Going through nearly twenty years of documentation we got from our NASC the other day, after an official request, has been a very sobering experience.
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Attention all clients of Ministry of Health Disability Support Services
(This too needs it's own post, but I haven't the time at the moment...so here goes...)
Disabled people living in their own homes who have been able to have a family member as their paid caregiver (including spouses) are being told that these "arrangements" are being terminated as of the 31st March 2016. (these are not people under Funded Family Care.)
Those eligible for Funded Family Care (not spouses) will need to apply for this funding if they wish to continue being cared for by family.
This will involve a new Support Needs Assessment.
It would appear that these assessments will restrict the number of hours of support to 40 hours per week, regardless of what the Support Needs Level of the person is or how many hours they are being funded for at present.
There may, or may not, be the option of having extra hours (over and above the maximum of forty hours per week on FFC) funded through Individualised Funding.
It will most likely be the case that you could be assessed as needing 60 hours of support per week to meet your core needs, but you will be offered only forty or less.
It is very, very difficult to find out exactly what your SNL is, or how many hours the "independent assessor" sent by your NASC has recommended.
My advice (FWIW) is for MOH:DSS clients to request a copy of their complete records from their NASC. Find and collate any and all letters and documents that you have been sent over the years.
Make sure you have a record of previous assessments, hours funded for care and any document that supports a higher allocation of support hours.
Speak with your networks...spread the word.
My theory, for what it is worth, is that MOH:DSS clients who are living as part of a family are going to have their funded supports pared back in order to fund other areas of Ministry of Health's responsibility...perhaps elder care.
I will close by drawing attention again to the opening paragraph of the Part 4 amendment to the Public Health and Disability Act 2013.
“70APurpose of this Part
“(1)The purpose of this Part is to keep the funding of support services provided by persons to their family members within sustainable limits in order to give effect to the restraint imposed by section 3(2) and to affirm the principle that, in the context of the funding of support services, families generally have primary responsibility for the well-being of their family members.http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0022/latest/whole.html
Anyone from the Government or Ministry of Health, Disability Support Services who wishes to make a statement or to tell me I am reading this wrongly, please do.
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Brent Edwards gets all nostalgic....
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/282617/how-cynical-has-nz-politics-become
On top of that, ministers now have political advisers who act as intermediaries with their departments. Their role is to identify potential political fish hooks for the minister in his or her portfolio area.
The introduction of a no-surprises policy by the previous Labour Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has given added impetus to the process of politicisation.
From Helen Clark's perspective, it made perfect sense to impose a degree of political management on departments so she and her government could avoid being blindsided by an issue they knew nothing about. -
Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Christmas tree or Yacht sail?
Some fwit paid $20,000 for that?
That's what they mean when they say "more money than sense."
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Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Silver Fern Farms have been partly sold off to overseas interests – will a similarly flagged country have the same thing done do it?
Yes.....
Maybe it already happened?
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Greenpeace activists protest on our research ship Tangaroa.
They claim that the taxpayer funded $24million refit was to enable the Tangaroa to look for oil and gas deposits in New Zealand waters.
If this is correct....
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11550347
Key will go to Paris and say, "Hey, this is what we're doing about global warming!".So proud to be a Kiwi right now.
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Legal Beagle: Voting in the Flag Referendum, in reply to Bart Janssen,
yeah nah – this is the dude who used rape as a political ploy two weeks ago
At the local TPPA march, we took a NZ Flag...(never having flown a flag in our lives!) and a reversible placard.
TPPA It's Not OK.... on one side.
Say Sorry Key.... on the other.
People got it...especially women, of all ages.