Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2009 - Health and ...

REPORT EDUCATION OF THE and DEPUTY CORPORATE COMMISSIONER SERVICES — EDUCATION and CORPORATE SERVICES
Plain Language Format
We converted the Review of the HDC Act and Code Consultation document into plain language
format and continue to increase the accessibility of its planning and reporting information.
HDC’s Statement of Intent 2009–2012 and our Report on the Review of the HDC Act and Code
has also been formatted into plain language.
Activities During the Year
Consumer forum — Māori with impairments
Listed below are some of the key issues arising from the participants of a forum held in South
Auckland:
• Disability services are not well coordinated, which results in increased cost (time and
money) for people wanting to access those services.
• Māori feel that they will be disadvantaged if they complain.
• There is a need for more Kaupapa Māori services as opposed to Pākehā services delivered in a
Māori way.
• Whānau need to be involved in any decisions concerning disabled members of the family.
• Whānau need to be recognised as key caregivers and need to be paid.
• Required documentation (for funding application/needs assessment, etc) should be simple
enough (in non-technical language) for whānau to understand — processes need to meet
the needs of whānau.
Important Tribunal ruling
The Human Rights Review Tribunal delivered an important decision upholding the rights of
disabled consumers. The case involved serious boundary violations committed by a caregiver
working with a young man who experiences intellectual and developmental impairments. The
Tribunal upheld the Director of Proceedings’ claim that the defendant’s actions breached the
Code of Rights and awarded $30,000 damages (see case study, p 21).
Education
Educational needs of providers have been the focus of the major initiatives in the 2008/09
year. These have taken diverse forms — interactive workshops, presentations on request to
conferences, meetings, and to students in the health professions, accredited professional
development, articles for general publication, and specialised reports. Highlights were:
DHB complaints information
HDC provides six-monthly reports to DHBs covering the number and types of complaints
received, and outcomes of closed complaints. In 2008/09, two further reports (covering
January–June, and July–December 2008) were disseminated, making a total of six reports
over the last three years. In response to feedback from DHBs that rates of complaints for
DHBs would be more meaningful than numbers of complaints made to HDC, discharge data
obtained from the Ministry of Health was used to calculate the frequency of complaints per
100,000 hospital discharges, enabling comparison of complaints data across DHBs. Inclusion
of frequency information in future reports will allow more meaningful comparisons over time,
both within and between DHBs. Case study material, which contains lessons from complaints
and recommendations for improved practice, continues to be provided. All DHBs reported a
high level of satisfaction with the reports, especially with the case studies.
Working with Corrections Health Services
This HDC Workshop for prison nurses is designed to enhance the awareness and skills of
nurses in prisons, to enable them to deliver care appropriately (in line with the Code) despite
the challenges of their work environment. The programme was first delivered in 2006 at
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