Review of Home Support Takes Account of Feedback

Review of Home Support Takes Account of Provider Feedback

Otago and Southland DHBs today invited home based support providers to work with them to plan long term service development for the provinces’ older people.

The DHBs’ chief executive Brian Rousseau, wrote to the organisations to indicate that the review of domestic assistance (house cleaning) signaled some weeks ago, would continue but at a slower pace than originally contemplated.

The DHBs and the six providers met last week to discuss the process for reviewing house cleaning for some elderly people.

“We acknowledged the providers' concerns and we are going to a great deal of effort to ensure that this is a safe process and that those who really need the service continue to get it,” Mr Rousseau said. “We have also acknowledged the providers' need for time to make alterations to their own employment arrangements.”

This week the DHBs will begin to send out letters to those people receiving 1.5 hours or less of house cleaning per week. The letters will go out progressively over the next four weeks.

However, Mr Rousseau said that before any letters went out Needs Assessment staff would be identifying all those people who they believed had exceptional circumstances who will not have their support affected.

“We want to make sure that people who have a high risk because of conditions such as significantly impaired mobility, vision, memory loss, a history of falls or other complex health needs, receive the appropriate service,” he said.

That could be as many as 15 to 20 percent of the people receiving 1.5 hours or less of domestic support who have exceptional circumstances – that’s approximately 350 people out of just under 2,000 people across Southland and Otago.

Those who do receive a letter over the next four weeks indicating they will no longer receive house cleaning will have the right of appeal and the DHB will review their case.

Mr Rousseau said that the whole review process would take perhaps six months to complete and while that was happening it was important that a sustainable service was planned for the future. Some of the providers had very interesting ideas about ways in which services could be re-organised in order to get the absolute maximum benefit for our community for the money spent and which would assist them to retain and develop staff, he said.

“We must all work together on providing the best services we can within the resources at our disposal. This is not just an issue for the DHB, nor just an issue for providers – it is an issue for all of us,” Mr Rousseau said.

The DHBs also wanted to include other providers of services to older people within the community in the conversation. “If we work together we can meet our community’s needs within our resources,” he said.

ENDS