New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Part 7: Mäori perspectives
care services could be strengthened by providing
broader options such as a kaupapa Mäori respite
service and a whänau-centred respite service.
This undertaking would involve all the needs
of whänau being taken into account and ensure
that the services were both person and whänau
centred. In relation to this suggestion, it was
suggested that regional service providers and
Mäori providers could be used as valuable
models by which Mäori respite services could
be developed. In addition, it was also suggested
that respite care could be offered in family
settings and that marae-based training could be
provided for family carers. A call was also made
for there being made available crisis respite care
for Mäori.
• deliver information kanohi ki te kanohi (faceto-face).
It was also suggested that caution should be
exhibited about when the appropriate time
was to provide information to Mäori about
ASD. It was noted that for some Mäori, a
pause is needed after a diagnosis of ASD has
been received, so that they have sufficient
time to grieve. Providing a lot of information
immediately after a diagnosis of ASD has been
given may simply overwhelm them. The need
to provide accurate information about what
parents and carers could expect during the
course of development over the lifespan for their
family member with ASD was also mentioned.
Part 7
Relative to funding and resource constraints,
attendees at the hui mentioned that if
government funding was specifically targeted
towards ASD, then this could potentially lead to
the strengthening of a community’s capacity to
provide support and respite care to whänau. It
was also noted that there may be constraints in
accessing appropriate respite care services if an
individual had a dual diagnosis.
Information
20. People often stress the importance of
timely, accurate and sensitive information.
Are there any cultural considerations about
the way ASD information is provided?
The following suggestions were made relative to
this question:
• make available wänanga in the respective
regions and communities
• invite community based ownership of
sourcing and distributing information
• provide ASD information in te reo Mäori
• develop a mainstream information package.
This would contain different strategies for
managing ASD behaviour so that services
could provide adequate support to people
with ASD
• develop a Mäori information package. This
would describe what ASD is and what it
means
21. How could ASD-related information be
made more accessible and more useful to
Mäori?
A number of different responses were provided
to this question. These included:
• development of a video featuring kaumätua
who could describe the issues involving
ASD. The video should be made available in
English and te reo Mäori and show different
contexts to deliver the messages, including
marae
• access to Plunket and similar services to
identify early indicators
• preparation of an information pack that
may include a range of written and visual
resources and dissemination of this material
through organisations and communities
• presentation of ASD information through the
media (eg, television, radio) with well-known
personalities and presenters delivering the
information
• provision of workshops presenting a range
of information about ASD assessment and
diagnosis, post-diagnosis support, education
and disabilities support.
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline 213