Powerful insights from the Covid-19 public inquiry
Plus: Are you our next communications manager? 💼
Mauri ora e te whānau!
In this week’s delicious edition:
Is it time for a reform on amputee services? 🦾
Dr Steven Lillis answers concerns on ADHD treatment changes 🧠
The D*List community hub is all go! 🚀
This week at our community hub in Tāmaki Makaurau, we had a cool bunch of people in for a wānanga discussing disability-led climate adaptations with Auckland Council 🍃 As a bonus, we were also #blessed with a surprise visit from D*List contributor and friend Umi Asaka all the way from Dunedin. She was here for other reasons, but a visit was lovely nonetheless!
🇼🇸 Today we are saying tōfā soifua to Naomi Vailima who is finishing up her 6-month placement with us part of our tuakana-teina Storyteller programme. We loved her personal essay about being the role model her younger self needed, and seeing her dance crew Nesian shine on stage at the Pacific Dance Festival. We’ll miss her wisdom, sass and humour but look forward to what she’ll get up to next!
✳️ We are growing our team - come work with us! We’re looking for an experienced Communications Manager responsible for leading a wide range of strategic communications projects that elevate the voices, experiences and aspirations of disability communities in Aotearoa. Apply now or send this to a hoa who you think is a good fit!
🧡 We would also like to acknowledge the recent passing of Dr Hilary Stace, a champion for the autism community and a respected scholar in public policy, and Tim Bray, the founder of Tim Bray Theatre Company, who has dedicated over 30 years to accessible and inclusive theatre for children and youth.
These two longstanding and beloved leaders of the disability community have left behind a legacy that will continue to empower. We know that their loss will be keenly felt by their family, friends and all those they have touched.
Nō reira, e ngā rangatira kua rere atu ki tua o te ārai, haere, hoki atu rā ki tō kōrua kāinga tūturu.
🧣 This week, the IHC released their report, The Cost of Exclusion (Easy Read and plain language summary versions are available). It showed 18.8% of people living with an intellectual disability live in hardship, compared to 7.8% of their non-disabled peers. And while for non-disabled people, hardship eases with age, it doesn’t change for people with intellectual disabilities.
🦿Advocate Jess Quinn is using her platform to back the call for an amputee service reform. In a paywalled article on NZ Herald last week, six amputees from the Far North to Christchurch who called for an overhaul on the Government’s system for supporting amputees.
Many are complaining about the lack of choice and options, with some saying it’s “near impossible” to get a timely appointment with NZALS, the ACC-funded government entity where all amputees in the country are directed to. Delays to fixing issues are causing pain and affecting the mental health of clients.
🅿️ 43 drivers in Whangārei who were ticketed for unauthorised parking in mobility carparks have had their fine waived. The Whangārei District Council told the NZ Herald this was due to an administrative error on the council’s part or because a driver had been able to provide clear evidence they did not commit an infringable offence. Whangārei disability advisory group member, Wendy Giffin, is concerned about the effectiveness of current enforcement.
Giffin said she had been approached by members of the public… including by a security guard who reported being abused while asking people to move from mobility parks at the i-Site centre.
“It’s clear this is a wider issue and people are getting fed up.”
💊 Healthcare IT News reports, Associate Health Minister, David Seymour, has been encouraging Medsafe and Pharmac to adopt AI tools to speed up processes and support decision-making. He said in a media release that finding efficiencies in medicine assessment processes means patients can access the treatments they need faster.
💊 Dr Steven Lillis from the University of Waikato says that while ADHD drug shortages won’t change in the near future, the widening of diagnosis and prescription authority to GPs and NPs will make access to the drugs more equitable.
The issue of medication shortage is different morally and ethically from eligibility to medication. Global shortage is, from the perspective of Aotearoa, 'ethically neutral' in that there is nothing locally we can do to change this. Restricting access to those who are wealthy (who can afford a private psychiatrist) is a structurally embedded inequity.
😷 This week, a range of organisations and individuals spoke at the public hearings on the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry to reflect on the Government’s response to the pandemic. On Tuesday, representatives of disability communities from Kaikaranga, Disability Connect and Te Roopu Waiora shared their experiences. Eda Tang tuned in to the hearing.
Tania Kingi, the chief executive of Te Roopu Waiora said: “We had whānau that thought Delta was an airline for quite a period after the Delta virus hit our shores.” Pamphlet drops served no purpose for whānau kāpō and sign language interpreters were fingerspelling completely new words. She said that as a new language was created, dominated by English medical terms, “someone forgot to let our communities know so that we could make sense of what this language was and what it meant.”
🎤 Come along to The D*List community hub on Tuesday night next week and be part of Deaf and disabled Slam Poetry in Aotearoa! Action Education have been running weekly workshops in partnership with The D*List, nurturing the next generation of Slam Poets. Join us on Tuesday 14th July at 6pm to celebrate our participants' mahi, with an open mic opportunity to share your own poem if you'd like. Tickets are FREE and strictly limited to ensure community safety, so get in quick before they're gone! Accessible venue, NZSL interpreters, shared kai and DJ included.
🏊🏼 Volunteer for the 2025 Special Olympics National Summer Games which will be held in Ōtautahi in December. They’re looking for at least 650 volunteers for a variety of roles including pre games support, packing in the opening ceremony, ushering athletes, admin, transport and media.
Ka kite anō!
Eda + The D*List team
