13 July 2020
Minister Andrew Little
Private Bag 18888
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160
a.little@parliment.govt.nz
Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Kia orana, Fakalofa lahi atu, Malo ni, Bula vinaka and Greetings to you Hon. Minister Andrew Little,
I write to you on behalf of the Pacific Disability Community, Tōfa Mamao Collective to express our concerns with the recommendations in the Health and Disability System Review Report regarding the future of Disability Support Services. We also provide you with an alternative for your consideration.
We understand that a collective response from the Pacific providers has been submitted, but we as people with lived experience would like to bring to your attention the journey that the disability community have endured for many decades has been unnecessarily painful and challenging. The possible decision of devolving services to DHBs will be seen by our community as retrograde and counter-productive.
It was not that long ago that disability was viewed through the lenses of superstition and religious belief, i.e. curse, punishment, and the sins of the parents. This view was later replaced with the medical model, as a condition that must be fixed. Expensive hospitals and institutions were built to house and hide disabled people from society. But thanks to the courage of disabled people and their families through sustained advocacy from the 1970s through to the 1990s, the social model became accepted as the way that disabled people holistic needs could be met, which also lead to the closure of many hospitals and institutions (thank God). For the first time, disabled people were not primarily defined by their disability, instead were seen as people with aspirations like any other New Zealand citizen.
Tōfa MamaoCollective recognises that the time is right for some transformational and structural change in our sector. However, we do not believe those proposed in the report are the right ones. In our experience, DHBs have limited knowledge and experience of disability issues generally. They are essentially medically-based with little appreciation for social, cultural, economic and everyday influences on disabled peoples lives. DHBs are also fiscally-driven, and therefore disability will always be competing with other services. Also, DHBs generally adopt different approaches to services, and therefore the access and support our disabled people receive will very much be dependent on the preceding factors; and inconsistent.
Tōfa MamaoCollective recommends the following alternative for your consideration:
