Older Persons Most In Need Will Still Receive

Older Persons Community Based Support Services - Those Most in Need Will Continue to Receive it

Older people who have publicly expressed fears about the loss of home support are the very people who will continue to receive the service, the Otago and Southland DHBs' Regional Chief Executive Officer, Brian Rousseau said today.

“People housebound with poor vision are the ones who will continue to receive home support,” he said.

He said that the DHB was taking great care to ensure that those who really need domestic support get it and has been meeting face to face with all providers and stakeholders to explain the review changes and what they would mean for those with exceptional circumstances.

As it has been talking to home-based support providers and stakeholders, the DHB team has received considerable feedback that there are people in the community receiving domestic assistance who “do not require it” and who can undertake other demanding activities.

“We need to ensure we are spending money on the people who have been assessed as having the greatest need for services, but we must make changes for lower needs people only receiving domestic assistance,” Mr Rousseau said.

“House cleaning is an area we can safely reduce while still providing a high level of care in the community so that people can remain living in their own homes rather than rest homes.”

However, Mr Rousseau said it was important that the community and the DHBs worked together to ensure services reached those who really need them. “Older people do need to be supported by all of us and we need to make sure that we are very careful about explaining these changes, as we go through implementing them.”

“I think it would be very easy to unnecessarily scare older people, when in fact they have no need to be concerned,” he said.

Mr Rousseau said that the DHBs had been absolutely clear that there was a need for change. “There is a limit to our resources, but if we and the community work together we can make the most of what we have.”

He said it was very important that providers, community groups and the DHBs continued to talk through the implementation period.

“We will continue to provide support where it is necessary to keep people safe in their own homes,” he said.

ENDS

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