Otago/Southland seniors to lose home support?
Assessment services assessed
Otago Daily Times, on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 http://www.odt.co.nz/tags/health/93806/assessment-services-assessed
Needs assessment staff in
The Southland and Otago District Health Boards say they must cut some housekeeping services provided to elderly people in a bid to save money.
… The matter was discussed in the public-excluded session of the boards' joint disability support advisory committee meeting yesterday.
… David Chrisp said after the meeting the item was discussed behind closed doors as the boards did not want to pre-empt yesterday's meeting with needs assessment staff.
He did not want staff to hear about the proposals before they were briefed by management.
Mr Chrisp said management needed more time before making a public statement.
ODHB chairman Errol Millar… said no financial stone was being left unturned in the effort to prune the budget deficit.
Neither board could keep "spluttering" along in the current fashion, or the "receivers" would be called in in the form of national health officials to sort out the situation.
Elderly help reconsidered
Otago Daily Times, on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 http://www.odt.co.nz/the-regions/otago/93204/elderly-help-reconsidered
Elderly people needing only housework help may not qualify for any district health board funding in future, under new access criteria being considered in Otago and Southland.
The Otago and Southland district health boards' general planning and funding manager David Chrisp told this week's Southland meeting that the proposal being considered involved the boards no longer providing a house cleaning service, if that was all a person required…
Both boards are trying to pull back their spending for the elderly in the community because they say they are spending millions of dollars more than they should according to national averages and their population-based funding.
Asked after the meeting whether there could be a risk of over-delivering other services such as personal care under such criteria, Mr Chrisp said there would need to be safeguards against that.
The needs assessment co-ordination teams could be relied on to manage any agreed access criteria appropriately.
A person considered to need only house cleaning would be provided with "a range of options and information", including referring them to an existing home support provider where they could buy the service.
Other boards had similar access criteria to those being considered, he told the meeting.
Responding to a question at the meeting about the controversial idea of telephone reassessment of those people already receiving low levels of housework help, Mr Chrisp said there was a role for "telephone reviews" which was not a reassessment, but it was not the only tool which could be used in Southland.
In the past, letters had been sent to people about their future level of support and that would continue.
There would always be a portion of those receiving services who would need a face-to-face reassessment.
In response to a question from board member Sajan Bhatia about common criteria for boards Mr Chrisp said some work was being done to align boards in the South Island, but nationally it was a bigger challenge.
Proposals outlining how to save more money in the area of elderly care are expected to go before the boards' joint finance audit and risk management committee next week...
Threat to elderly worries families
Otago Daily Times, on Sat, 6 Feb 2010 LINK
Families are already expressing concern about the possibility of telephone interviews to reassess elderly relatives' need for housework help, Age Concern Otago chief executive Susan Davidson says.
This follows discussion at this week's Otago District Health Board of plans to reassess the needs of 2400 people over 65 who are receiving up to two hours of housework help a week….
Ms Davidson said yesterday she had received calls from people concerned their relatives would agree to anything over the telephone.
Family members needed to be consulted, they said… Ms Davidson questioned whether the technique had been used successfully elsewhere, as claimed.
Recent reports of telephone reassessments in the Wellington area had not been positive.
…The board has been trying to reduce this service to national average levels, but planned reductions are not on track, prompting the plan for telephone reassessments to cut down the $4.8 million being spent annually on the targeted group.
… regional general manager of planning and funding David Chrisp, under pressure from board members, revealed some details of the proposal at the board meeting on Thursday.
Mr Chrisp told the board longer-term work would be done to look at how the board could change its contracting approach to consider alternatives to the existing home-based support systems.
This could mean people remained in their homes six to 12 months longer than at present before moving into residential care and might include such things as two hours of weekly nursing input…
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