Skip to Content | Website Help | Site Map

Bites: September and October 2002

Disability as a political force theme of DPA Conference

Invercargill — Friday 11 October to Sunday 13 October 2002

A person needs to work through various issues in order to turn their life around and live to the max, according to the organisors of this year's biennial DPA National Assembly and Conference.

And helping people work through those steps or processes is what Southland DPA members are organising this year for members attending conference.

The conference this year is being held at the very accessible Ascot Park Hotel, Invercargill, during the weekend of Friday 11 October to Sunday 13 October 2002 with the theme, Disability as a political force.

And conference organisers are giving members more opportunity to be inspired on the political level.

You cannot become political without good self-esteem, knowing you are valued, being able to identify what holds you back and working through simple processes to get to the bigger picture stuff, they say.

Four interactive workshops are being planned and people will be able to chose two to attend. The workshop topics are:

• How to identify problems and solve them, facilitated by Robyn Hunt or Dot Wilson.
• How to use the media co-facilitated by Chris Chilton, assistant editor of the Southland Times and Grant Cleland or Minnie Baragwanath of InsideOut.
• We're 'OK' changing direction, about acceptance, feeling good, rebuilding self esteem and doing what you never thought possible, co-facilitated by Fran Stanat and Gordon Georgel.
• Celebrating with the great outdoors, a workshop about enjoying life to the max, demonstrating disability pride, being out there and going for it, co-facilitated by Anna Jameson and Peter Dolomore.
• Women's Issues with Lorna Sullivan. Key note speakers are Dr Martin Sullivan, Robyn Hunt and Ruth Dyson are guaranteed to deliver a punch.

The conference dinner is a must (be sure to book for this) with after dinner speaker Gerry Ford followed by top band in the south Midnight Cruise who will certainly take you cruising into the midnight hour.

There'll be a range of other activities and topics on the agenda and a meeting of the National Executive Committee will be held during the day before conference begins. Registration forms are available from Ann ph (03) 217 9557 or Dot ph (03) 214 4265.

Lots to see in Invercargill

DPA members travelling to Invercargill will have lots to see, say conference organisers, Ann Boyles and Dot Wilson. We have an amazing water tower, Queens Park gardens and aviary, Oreti Beach, a revamped city centre that looks good, some wonderful cafes, sporting facilities (including Southland Stadium, home of the Southern Sting), a revamped rugby stand, swimming pool, and golf courses, Ann says. Our Museum has live tuataras and a wonderful sub-Antarctic Islands exhibition. We have fresh air and sunshine. On Sunday afternoon for those not flying out at lunchtime we intend to run an excursion exploring the surrounds of Invercargill plus Bluff Hill. The view from Bluff Hill is amazing!

Stewart Island is only a 40-minute cruise on the catamaran from Bluff or a 20 minute flight to this absolute paradise is strongly recommended. Bookings are essential.

Book early for Conference!

Don't leave conference bookings and registration until the last moment, conference organisor, Ann Boyles says.

If you need accessible accommodation please, please book before September 16, from your list in the pack sent to you. This is important as the moteliers are only holding the accessible accommodation until then. There is a rugby match on in Invercargill that same weekend as our conference so accommodation will be in demand.

Cheap accommodation that has some accessible facilities is available at $15 per night with an extra $5 for breakfast. (You need to bring your sleeping bag and pillow for this one). Reservations to Mary Stott on 03 216 9148.

Social Policy

People with disabilities have a basic human right to participate in all aspects of the New Zealand community. This includes equal rights to education, employment, recreation, rehabilitation, health and accommodation services and the right to a meaningful and adequate income.

Disability Issues now in Cabinet

DPA expects to maintain cordial and constructive relations with New Zealand's first Disability Issues Minister, Hon Ruth Dyson, who retained the disability portfolio following the general election on 27 July 2002.

The election produced a minority coalition government of the Labour Party and the Progressive Coalition, with support from United Future. And the Disability Issues Minister has moved from being a Minister outside Cabinet, to being in the 20-member Cabinet executive. Ranked as eighteenth in the Cabinet line-up, ahead of two other new Ministers, John Tamihere and Chris Carter, Ms Dyson is also Minister for ACC, Women's Affairs, Associate Minister for Social Services and Employment and Associate Minister of Health.

Legislative mandate now required for disability issues

The disability issues portfolio now needs a legal mandate and piece of legislation to empower and support it within government, says DPA president, Bill Wrightson.

We really want to try and bed that role down into legislation. It needs to have a piece of legislation to support it, Bill says.

He says it's great that Disability Issues Minister, Ruth Dyson, is now in Cabinet. He looks forward to an exciting time and the opportunity to capitalise on progress that has been made so far with the government.

But he says most Ministers who have portfolios also have legislation specific to their role and responsibility. There is some piece of legislation that governs their area. She doesn't have anything like that. She has no formal mandate except as coordinator for a string of issues, whatever pops up under other pieces of legislation.

She just has this loose responsibility that's been called Minister of Disability Issues, to keep a watching brief. Her only mandate out of the Public Health and Disability Act 2001 is under the Disability Strategy. She has set up an Office for Disability Issues which is basically just that. The door could be closed tomorrow and we would have no come back.

Meanwhile, Bill says he'll be hoping to enhance and further develop DPA's already cordial relationship with the Minister.

New ODI Director appointed

Dr Jan Scown has been appointed the director of the new Office for Disability Issues, sparking criticism from DPA that the position should have gone to a disabled person.

Dr Scown has held a range of senior positions within the disability sector for more than 20 years. She co-chaired the New Zealand Disability Strategy Sector Reference Group and been chief executive of the Community Living Trust. She helped to establish Access Ability Limited, a needs assessment and service co-ordination agency operating in five centres around the country and is a qualified psychologist. She is currently overseas and will take up the position on 30 September.

Jan Scown's appointment was discussed at length by DPA's national executive committee at its meeting on 6 July 2002 where it was felt that in principle, the Director has to be a disabled person, DPA chief executive, Gary Williams said in a letter to the Ministry of Social Development's chief executive, Peter Hughes, on 17 July.

We all like Jan as a person, Gary Williams told DPA Bites. But the principle that we are trying to articulate is that this crucial leadership role for disabled people must be led by a disabled person. Jan understood our position. She wasn't surprised. Yet she's been getting feedback from disabled people who say it's OK.

To salvage the issue DPA suggested creating a codirectorship arrangement where MSD would appoint a disabled person as a co-director of the new Office.

That had practical and legal obstacles in the public sector environment, Peter Hughes said. He supported a mentoring arrangement instead and has asked DPA to consider suggestions about how that could be achieved.

I am prepared to implement something really creative, he said. I totally support (the) suggestion that a model be developed whereby the director can be supported in her position by someone with personal experience of disability.

The Office for Disability Issues is established within the Ministry of Social Development and will provide policy advice on disability issues and lead the government's implementation and monitoring of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. The director reports directly to the Minister for Disability Issues. For more information check the ODI website: http://www.odi.govt.nz.

Disability Services

DPA believes that every person with a disability, and every family which includes a member with a disability, should receive whatever services and other support or assistance which may be needed to reduce the disabling effects of impairment and the handicapping effects of disability. Services should be designed to make possible for each person a full, meaningful and constructive life of their own choosing.

DPA and Health Ministry working for Maori

DPA and the Ministry of Health are developing a proposal that will help provide policy input into the Maori services section of the Ministry's Disability Services Directorate.

Using the networks and kaupapa of DPA, the Ministry hopes that a core group of disabled Maori people will feed into the Ministry's Maori disability services policy development. In this way the Ministry would receive policy advice from disabled Maori, without it being appropriated, reinterpreted, sanitised, censored or refined by intermediaries.

The project is expect to include one or more hui, use only disabled Maori people, model a partnership arrangement, and be facilitated by DPA and appropriate members. DPA chief executive, Gary Williams, says details and timing of the arrangement have yet to be finalised.

Health Ministry development manager for Maori services, Hemi Ririnui-Horne, is very positive about the proposal. The main things we are aiming for are greater participation, and developing a partnership with disabled people, with DPA, so that we are working more closely together in developing services and in monitoring services. That's really what I am looking for, he says. Also, Hemi Ririnui-Horne says the work will examine the questions: Where are we moving to? And how can we plan more strategically and more effectively for the future?

Snapshots of Maori disability

An estimated 107,200 Maori (or one in five Maori) reported having a disability in 2001, according to the 2001 New Zealand Disability Survey by Statistics New Zealand.

With about 20 percent of the Maori population having a disability, that rate is the same as for other New Zealanders.

Physical disabilities are the most common type of disability reported by Maori adults, most commonly caused by disease or illness. The survey also revealed:

• Disability increases with age for Maori, as with non-Maori. Some 15 percent of Maori children (0 to 14 years) reported a disability; 19 percent of Maori aged 15 to 44 years, and 34 percent of Maori aged 45 to 64 years said they had a disability.
• More Maori boys up to 14 years of age (or 16 percent) had a disability, compared with 13 percent of Maori girls in the same age group.
• Among 45 to 64-year-olds, about 30 percent of Maori men reported a disability, compared with nearly 40 percent of Maori women the same age.
• At age 65 years and over about 60 percent of Maori said they had a disability, again more women than men, because at older ages the disability rate is higher among females than males.
• Nearly 60,000 disabled Maori (55 percent) said they had more than one disability, mostly physical (for 48,000 people or 61 percent of the population).
• Other disabilities affecting 46 percent (36,400) of Maori included speaking, learning and remembering disabilities. Most disabled Maori children (53 percent or 15,000) reported a disability classified as including speaking limitations, learning and developmental difficulties and requiring special education.
• Sensory disabilities and chronic health problems were also common for more than one third (about 10,000) of Maori children.
• Some 43 percent of Maori with disabilities said they were mildly affected by their disability; 40 percent were moderately affected, and the remaining 16 percent were severely limited in their activities.
• The most common cause of disability was a disease or illness, reported by over 40,000 Maori (39 percent) followed by injury or accident as the next most common cause for nearly 30,000 (28 percent) of people.
• An estimated 48 percent of Maori adults with disabilities were not working in the labour force.
• Forty-four percent of Maori adults with disabilities (nearly 35,000) were employed.
• Total annual income for 60 percent of disabled Maori adults was $15,000 or less (38,200).
• Almost 30 percent of Maori adults (22,400) reported using some type of special equipment related to their disability.
• Some 23 percent (or 18,000) adult Maori with disabilities reported an unmet need for some type of health service.

Trillions of economic potential

Australian quadriplegic, Mark Bagshaw, international marketing manager for computer company IBM Australia, breezed into New Zealand recently, promoting the notion of innovation within the global disability community — to realise the economic potential of disabled people. And that had to start with communities raising their expectations of the disabled people, he said.

Derek scores honours

Timaru man, Derek Hayman, a member of the Aoraki DPA executive committee, was awarded the Companion of the Queen's Service Order for Community Services (QSO) in the Queen's Birthday and Gold Jubliee Honours this year for his work with people with physical disabilities and in sporting administration.

Anything I have done has been for the good of the people with physical disabilities, Derek said in a feature article in the Timaru Herald. Derek, who contracted polio as a child and has worked with CCS and Barrier-Free Trust, told the Timaru Herald that the community still needs to be educated about making buildings and places accessible to all people. Well done Derek!

Derek Hayman

Want to know more?

If you need more information from the DPA National Secretariat on any item in Bites simply phone / ITTY us on (04) 801-9100, fax your request to (04) 801-9565, send it email: gen@dpa.org.nz, or to DPA (New Zealand) Inc, PO Box 27-524, Wellington or check our website www.dpa.org.nz

DPA (New Zealand) Inc, Phone/TTY: 64 4 801 9100, Fax: 64 4 801 9565, E-Mail: gen@dpa.org.nz