Ministry of Health (MoH) Disability Support Services Consortium

INDIVIDUALISED FUNDING (IF)
Karen Smith from the MoH in Auckland was driving the Individualised Funding model’s introduction. This is coming, at present it is being trialled via Manawanui In Charge (MIC). However it will be introduced through various service providers and implementation is expected to begin occurring by May 2010. Stay posted. If you wish to know more, go to www.incharge.org.nz . This could affect a number of our members, in a positive way hopefully. I.F. is a system where you can contract your own carers to provide supports, as opposed to going through a service provider. The systems will be flexible and for some aspects you can still use the services of a provider to help you. If required you can still use all the services of a provider.
IRIS Ltd, our service arm, is hoping to be a conduit through which IF can be accessed.

ENTITLEMENT???
An interesting discussion occurred regarding why NASCs sometimes do not inform consumers of what they are entitled to.... and the answer was that it was not an entitlement scheme!. It was mentioned that it was a needs based system based within budgetary constraints. Still we thought a person should be made aware of everything, even if they could not have it.

LOCAL AREA CO-ORDINATION (LAC)
John Wilkinson from the MoH discussed his investigations of the Queensland and Western Australian Local Area Co-ordination systems. So what do these co-ordinators do:
Provide links into the community, they assume the family knows best and take it from there, their first question is ‘What is a good life for you?’
They establish a good working relationship with the family and develop trust. They assist with clarifying strengths and weakness. They assist in developing natural networks and connections. They help access Government and Council supports and benefits. They provide a Disability Information and Advisory Service and help people to advocate for themselves.
The LAC system is voluntary. Of those eligible, only 40% use it, the rest have it done via service providers.... this was a bit surprising for me. There is about 1 co-ordinator per 10,000 people and each would be assisting approximately 40 families. The usual trend is that families need intensive input in the beginning which tapers off as the family finds its feet and comes up to speed. There were problems with introducing the system as many parts were already being done in NZ. Some of the Iwi models of support were very similar and these were being investigated as well. The introduction of the LAC system could have some way to go.

ESS (MoH Equipment Funders)
Sue Primrose (MoH) informed the meeting that a new prioritisation methodology was being investigated to handle requests for equipment. At present the lower limit for something to be applied for is $37... seems ridiculously low for the bureaucracy involved. They are looking at putting this up to maybe $200, possibly a little too high, anyway... . Since last Nov they have seen a surge in requests for equipment and as at the end of Nov there was about $18M in application pending.
Accessable and Enable are the bodies that assess everyone for equipment, the ESS provides the funding and guidelines. Accessable does from the Bombay’s north, Enable to the South. The total funding available per year is around $60m, it is split up into monthly allotments, at present they use a waiting list system but the new prioritisation system will eventually replace this (probably around Feb 2010). The pool of funds is not just for the disabled but also covers those over 65. Boy, they will need the wisdom of Solomon to get a good prioritisation system. However they have assured us that the system will be fair, transparent, open and designed to achieve value for money, so it will be interesting to see it in its final incarnation.

In conclusion, there are a number of changes coming up. Who knows where they will lead?, certainly this National Health Board has the potential to make things quite different from the way the health world is at present.