Auckland District Health Board Taikura Trust Aranui Home and ...

Health and Disability Commissioner
environment. Most residents at Oak Park are aged over 65, with age-related dementia.
At the time of Ms A’s admission, there was only one other resident younger than 65.
60. Oak Park supervisor Ms M recalls that on 23 August, she was advised by a nurse from
ACH that Ms A would be transferred by ambulance that day. Ms A arrived with some
documentation from ACH, and there is reference in the home’s progress notes that
day to a discharge summary and medication chart.
61. Staff recall that Ms A required a lot of care and assistance at the time of her
admission. On 27 August, she was assessed by Oak Park’s occupational therapist, Ms
T. Ms T noted that Ms A’s goal was ―to move to [the town where her parents live] to
live an ordinary life‖. On 29 August, Ms A was seen for the first time by general
practitioner Dr J. He also noted Ms A’s wish to return to her parents’ hometown.
Needs Assessment
62. A Needs Assessor from Taikura Trust, Ms K, also assessed Ms A on 29 August.
Taikura Trust subsequently explained that in situations such as this, a customer
support representative would usually liaise with the allocated needs assessor and the
client or his or her representative, to arrange the assessment. Ms K was contracted by
Taikura Trust on a fee-for-service basis. Her role was to complete an assessment to
identify Ms A’s support needs. It was then for a service co-ordinator to determine if
those needs could be met and, if so, how and by whom. 15
63. Ms K does not recall what information she was provided with prior to the assessment.
She explained that when she arrived at Oak Park, she obtained information from
written material on Ms A’s file, from Registered Nurse (RN) Ms N, and from Ms A.
Ms K initially spoke with RN N, who she recorded on the assessment as Ms A’s legal
representative. On the second page of the assessment, RN N signed the consent that
authorised the collection, storage and use of information for identifying support needs
and for service co-ordination. One page of the assessment records Ms K’s discussion
with Ms A, and this is signed by Ms A. Ms A subsequently advised that she had no
recollection of this meeting.
64. The assessment indicated that Ms A communicated clearly and had no verbal issues,
although she could be verbally aggressive when articulating her frustration. Ms K
found that Ms A’s memory was good, and rest home staff agreed. Ms K noted that Ms
A had requested a psychiatric assessment to determine her current situation, and that
RN N agreed this would be a good way to establish future goals and to be able to meet
her needs appropriately.
65. Ms K noted three desired outcomes:
15 The Policy, Procedure and Information Reporting Guidelines for NASC state that a needs assessment
is undertaken in partnership with the disabled person and is a ―…facilitated process of determining the
current abilities, resources, goals and needs of a person with a disability and identifying which of those
needs are the most important to the disabled person‖. Service co-ordination is the process of ―setting up
flexible and responsive solutions to meet the prioritised needs and goals of the disabled person, as
identified in the needs assessment, in a manner that makes sense to them‖.
12 3 November 2010
Names have been removed (except Auckland DHB, Taikura Trust, Aranui Home and Hospital/Oak
Park Dementia Unit and the expert who advised on this case) to protect privacy. Identifying letters are
assigned in alphabetical order and bear no relationship to the person’s actual name.