Ministry Holds Talks With Disability Consumers

Media Release

21 March 2007

Ministry of Health Holds Talks With Disability Consumers

A series of meetings about Ministry of Health funded disability support services are being held around the country.

A total of 25 fora and hui begin on Thursday 22 March and finish up in Picton in mid-June.

Deputy Director-General of Disability Services Geraldine Woods says the meetings provide a chance for disabled people, their families and whanau to talk to us about the services we fund and give us their ideas for the future provision of our funded services.

"Following last year's meetings, we produced a report on the issues and concerns our service users raised. We have used this information to help shape the work we do."

She says concerns came under four key themes: the choice and availability of services, support for families, the disability sector workforce and accessible information. Disability Services staff have been working to come up with actions to address those concerns. For example, an advisory group of disabled people, the Consumer Consortium, meets twice a year to provide advice on what the Ministry needs to be doing to improve our services.

"Some of our clients told us that there is lack of choice for disabled people in deciding what services they need and also being able to choose where to get it from. So, as a result, we are reviewing the way we provide funding to individuals to see how we can make it easier for people to do this. Individualised funding is now being provided to some of our clients in Auckland, the Waikato and Taranaki."

Geraldine Woods says last year's meetings around the country attracted between 600 and 700 people and this year we're making it even more accessible to people, by visiting the main centres of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin and also holding meetings in 14 other smaller centres, including Timaru, Westport, New Plymouth, Northland, Wairarapa, Gisborne, Rotorua and Tauranga.

"We know it's important to reach as many of our service users as possible to ensure our workplan reflects what disabled people want to enable them to participate as others do in their home and community. We do listen and we do want to talk to as many people as possible who use our services. In the main centres we also plan on holding two meetings, one during business hours and one in the evening, to reach as many people as possible."

Ms Woods is inviting people keen to register for one of the meetings to go to the Ministry of Health website - www.moh.govt.nz/dsdforum or call free on 0800 373 664 or email dsdforum@moh.govt.nz. You can also turn up on the day.

Meetings will be held in the following areas -

Dunedin hui - Thursday 22 March
Dunedin - Thursday 22 March (evening) Friday 23 March (daytime)
Christchurch (2 fora) - Thursday 29 March
Timaru - Friday 30 March
Blenheim - Tuesday 3 April
Westport - Thursday 26 April
Greymouth - Friday 27 April
Palmerston North - Thursday 3 May
New Plymouth - Friday 4 May
Hamilton (2 fora) Wednesday 9 May
Auckland (2 fora) - Thursday 10 May
Whangarei - Friday 11 May
Masterton - Friday 18 May
Tauranga - Tuesday 22 May
Gisborne hui - Wednesday 23 May
Rotorua hui - Tuesday 29 May
Hamilton hui - Wednesday 30 May
Auckland hui - Thursday 7 June
Kaitaia hui - Friday 8 June
Wellington (2 fora) - Tuesday 12 June
Picton hui - Thursday 14 June

ENDS

To view a copy of the report following last year's fora please go to www.moh.govt.nz/dsdforum

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