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

Health and Disability Commissioner
to ascertain, if Ms A was unable to consent to the placement, who could consent on
Ms A’s behalf, and who it should consult and communicate with in relation to her
placement. Subsequently, the information provided by Oak Park, together with the
assessments carried out by Taikura Trust, should have raised concerns about the
services provided to her, but again there was a failure to adequately address this.
195. The efforts made by Taikura Trust staff to inform Ms A about the options available
and expected time frames for assessment and placement service provision were
inadequate. There were deficiencies in communication, consultation and co-operation
— with one another, with Ms A, and with other service providers.
196. Accordingly, Taikura Trust breached Rights 3, 4(1), and 4(5) of the Code. 38
Legal status
197. When Ms A was referred to Taikura Trust, it received copies of the medical reports
that supported the personal order application. It therefore had ―reasonable grounds‖
for believing Ms A was not competent. In light of this, it had a responsibility to
ascertain whether there was anyone else entitled to consent on her behalf and, if there
was no such person, to ascertain the legal basis for providing her with services.
Taikura Trust subsequently advised HDC that having received the initial referral and
medical reports from ADHB, it expected to receive further information about the
personal order in due course, and that as this was not forthcoming, it made
―considerable efforts‖ to obtain the relevant documentation. This is not evident. Any
efforts that were made were not until a year later, in August 2008, after CADS
became involved.
198. Taikura Trust therefore provided services to Ms A for more than a year, assuming on
the one hand that she was subject to a personal order under the PPPR Act and, at the
same time, apparently giving no consideration to who had the legal authority to
consent on her behalf, and who staff should be consulting and communicating with.
This was unacceptable.
199. I am not suggesting that it was Taikura Trust’s responsibility to check that ADHB had
filed the application for a personal order. However, in order to establish the legal basis
for it to provide services to Ms A, Taikura Trust needed to promptly obtain
verification that a court order had been made and be aware of the conditions set out in
the order. This could be done relatively simply by contacting the Family Court. A
copy of the order needed to be on Ms A’s file.
200. Following Ms A’s admission to Oak Park, Taikura Trust conducted one needs
assessment and two reassessments. These show clearly that Ms A’s views were
ascertained. These included her requests to be reassessed, to leave Oak Park to live
somewhere more suitable, and to move nearer to her family. There were multiple staff
members involved with Ms A, including customer support representatives, needs
assessors, service co-ordinators, and supervisory and management staff. It has not
38 See footnotes 2, 3, and 4.
34 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.