Posts by Hilary Stace
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US CDC now accepts zika microcephaly link
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Two court cases about sexual abuse reported today reflect some issues of disability abuse. A school caretaker/ former principal was recently convicted of long term sexual abuse, including of disabled girls, and today got a long sentence. People are asking how this can have gone on for so long?
In another case a ‘prominent’ New Zealander has been acquitted of sexual abuse of two girls. Although it was not reported whether the girls had any kind of disability, the girls were apparently not considered credible witnesses by the jury after their testimony was attacked by the defence lawyer.
This sheds light on the first situation (without making any judgement on the case above). The former principal was astute enough to pick on victims who were voiceless or whose complaints would not be considered credible particularly against his considerable status and power. It is very difficult for disabled or vulnerable young people to challenge such power and privilege. So he was protected by the system for decades and his abusing continued.
Name suppression is also a tool which protects the abusers not the victims as it becomes illegal to name or discuss the person in any context. That also stops other victims realising and reporting that he was also their abuser.
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Access: Social media, disability…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
I've heard that organisations are getting more risk averse and with insufficient funding and resources available have started picking and choosing their clients. So there are more people being 'exited' from services and others with high and complex needs for whom no one will provide new services.
And then people complain about increasing numbers of beggars and overloaded emergency departments.
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Begging has also become a Wellington City Council election issue with clear differences between the left and the right.
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Fascinating insight on the subject by Michael Field
http://thespinoff.co.nz/07-04-2016/me-and-jurgen-mossack-how-kiwi-journalist-revealed-mossack-fonsecas-dodgy-pacific-deals/ -
Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Angela Hart,
Suspicious about this. Nice idea but it also proposes more contracting out, more fragmentation and using cheaper professionals via NGOs instead of a strong centralised unionised, professional workforce.
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Sacha,
Over the years there have been significant changes in disability support. There were the pensions under the first Labour government. In the early 70s ACC for disablement by accident and then in 1975 the Disabled Person's Community Welfare Act provided some specific supports for the non ACC group. In the early 1990s there was the major restructuring putting disability support into Health from Social Welfare and bringing in the ring fenced NASC system. Surely 23 years later we are overdue for another total review of the system to bring in one simple and fair person centred disability support system for all?
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It was International Autism Awareness day this week and this morning Autism NZ hosted a parliamentary breakfast to mark it. The Minister, Nicky Wagner, gave a standard speech about how much the government is doing via programmes like Enabling Good Lives (only two sites) and a disability employment programme in Christchurch. But the mother of two boys, followed by the chairperson of the Autism NZ board spoke about the realities including the lack of local statistics, services and the daily struggles, as well as rewards. The latest overseas estimated prevalence of 1 in 58 people on the spectrum shocked some (and we have hardly investigated the aging population at all).
But what was heartening was the large group of the people who attended, which was bigger than any previous years . Good to see Chai Chua from the MoH there, and senior representatives from many government departments including police, as well as numerous MPs from various parties. Lots of networking. But as the board chair says, we are better at autism awareness these days but celebration is still a way off.
Meanwhile a young man with autism, bored by the speeches, kept it real by quietly roaming around the hall.
Overall, taking an historical perspective informed by my numerous talks over the years with Marion Bruce, we are making some progress.
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Access: Disability as a wicked policy problem, in reply to Angela Hart,
Sorry, I am conflating complex issues with disability support with the latest discussions about a Universal Basic Income. This UBI proposal would give everyone, even children, a guaranteed basic income every week. If you needed more eg for disability support, equipment, housing etc that would be provided on need (either in cash or services), not on financial means testing as happens currently in the Work and Income space.
Of course a lot of work would be required if this was to come in, but it would mean that you wouldn’t need to justify the need to have a benefit as you do now. The topping up would be done on much more trust basis than is currently done and there could be one simple system. So of course all the gate keeping and ring fencing of today would have to be addressed.
Just ideas at the moment, but some form of this UBI is likely to come in eventually and as disability activists we need to be prepared.
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We used to have a New Zealand Guidelines Group, independent of the Ministry of Health, whose job was to assess international clinical evidence and produce authoritative best practice guidelines. This government removed its funding.