(New Zealand Disability Strategy Objective 7: Create long-term support systems centred on the individual)

Disabled people need to have the best health possible if they are to make the most of their opportunities for inclusion and participation in the community. As a group, they have tended to have poorer health than non-disabled people.

The National Health Committee’s 2003 report “To Have an ‘Ordinary’ Life: Community membership for adults with an intellectual disability” found that people with intellectual disabilities were particularly at risk of poor health.

Government agencies are giving attention to helping ensure disabled people can achieve and continue to have a good standard of health.

Improving health for disabled people

In 2008/2009, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs completed the disability report-back for the Action Plan for New Zealand Women. Among its findings, the report identified an approach to improve disabled women’s access to and participation in health services.

Sport and Recreation New Zealand has a commitment to provide funding over four years from 2008/2009 to:

• the Halberg Trust and Special Olympics New Zealand to support initiatives that aim to get more disabled New Zealanders involved in and supporting sport and recreation
• projects proposed by Parafeds and other national sports organisations; and to Paralympics New Zealand.

Departments also undertook work which is to continue into 2009/2010 and beyond to improve the health of disabled people:

• the development of a work programme to improve the health status of people with intellectual disabilities: this follows information gathering and analysis which confirmed the unnecessarily poor health status of this group and identified a wide range of causes for this (Ministry of Health)
• the development of mental health and addiction service specifications for adult, child and youth services: these are available for use by district health board funders and planners to contract for non-government organisations from 1 July 2009 and district health board providers from 1 July 2010 (Ministry of Health)
• research on the health of disabled prisoners and their families, to look at the key obstacles to supporting disabled prisoners, their reintegration into the community and the problems faced by their families: input for this is being sought from disabled people, family members and those working with disabled prisoners (National Health Committee)
• the commissioning of a report from the Māori Development Research Centre on research priorities to promote improved health outcomes and participation for disabled Māori (the Ministry of Health and the Health Research Council)
• the completion by the end of 2009/2010 of two research programmes into noise-induced hearing loss in workplaces, to be followed by raising awareness and revisiting programmes to eliminate noise at source; the overall aim is to protect the hearing of employees, including those who already have some hearing loss (the Department of Labour in association with ACC).

In 2008/2009, the Ministry of Health undertook a number of actions to create a sound information base for the planning and delivery of services:

• The Ministry established the Programme for the Integration of Mental Health Data (PRIMHD). This involves capturing data provided by contributing district health boards and non-government organisations from 1 July 2008 to create a single national mental health information collection of mental health services activity and, for the first time, outcomes data. All district health boards and the majority of mental health non-government organisations will be required to submit data for this by 1 July 2010. It is intended that the PRIMHD data will be used to support the management of mental health and addiction service systems and the delivery of care to consumers.
• The Ministry commissioned Te Pou (the National Centre of Mental Health Research, Information and Workforce Development) to develop the Te Pae Kaiawha website, which went live in early 2009. The website (http://www.primarymentalhealth.co.nz) is designed to make it easier for district health boards, primary health organisations and primary mental health practitioners to access information about the primary mental health service delivery models and tools being used in different parts of the country. The aim is to enhance the outcomes for people accessing mental health and addiction services within primary care.

The Ministry of Health will also:

• develop new service specifications for providers of services to people accessing mental health and addiction services, who also have a hearing impairment or an intellectual disability, with the aim of ensuring more consistent services across the country based on current best practice
• develop a resource document to provide guidance to the Ministry of Health and district health boards on how best to support an integrated approach across the traditional boundaries to deal with older people’s mental health, addictions, disability and chronic conditions: some district health boards are already using this integrated approach, but it will be mandatory from 1 July 2010.