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Right 4 is clearly a major factor for all
sectors, with 43% of complaints about
disability services, 53% of complaints about
health services and 37% of those involving
mental health providers relating to
standards of care. The combined complaints
about communication, information and
consent (Rights 5, 6 and 7) featured in 39%
of complaints about disability services
(up from 36% in the previous year), 33%
of complaints about health providers and
37% of complaints about mental health
providers. The right to support (Right 8)
continues to feature in just 2% of disability
complaints, compared with 1% of health
and 6% of mental health complaints.
The complaint process (Right 10) featured in
4% of the complaints about both disability
and mental health services, compared with
2% of complaints about health services.
Demographics
In 2011/12 more complaints came from
female callers (56.7%) than male callers
(38.3%). People who described their gender
as “other” made up the remaining 5% of
complainants. Consumers under the age
of 15 years accounted for 4% of complaints.
At 34%, the highest number of complaints
was made by people in the 41–60 age
group followed by 27% from the 26–40
age group and 23% being about consumers
aged between 61 and 90 years of age.
New Zealand Pakeha continued to make
the largest number of complaints (67%)
with New Zealand Maori making 13% of
the complaints. Pacifi c people made 2%
of complaints in 2011/12. The remainder
of complaints were from a wide range of
ethnic groups, including a small group of
people who declined to provide
their ethnicity.
Residential visits
Advocates have been visiting rest homes
for six years and disability homes for fi ve
years. The purpose of the visits is to make
it easy for residents to speak with an
advocate and to provide free education
sessions for residents and whanau/family
members as well as providers. All but one
of the 680 rest homes had at least one
contact with an advocate, and 506 rest
homes had at least two contacts. Advocates
made at least one contact with 957 of 961
disability homes and 657 had at least two
contacts. Over the reporting year, there have
been a total of 3,069 rest home and 3,074
disability residential visits by advocates.
Every residential home has been given a
free copy of the Tell Someone DVD. The
DVD is an educational tool to help people
with learning or intellectual disabilities
understand their rights. About 10% of the
visits have been to assist residents and/or a
third party acting on behalf of the resident
to make a complaint.
Networking
Networking is an important way for
advocates to establish a profi le in their local
communities so they are well positioned
to inform consumers of their rights and
providers of their duties. Networking helps
advocates make effective referrals if the
matter is outside the HDC’s jurisdiction.
Networking and education are the key
features of the role of the six specialist
advocates. These advocates respond to
the needs of a range of Deaf, refugee and
migrant communities. Over the past year
advocates developed and maintained
contact with 4,189 networks, of which 46%
had a disability focus, 3% were with Maori
networks and 6% were with refugee and
migrant communities from non-English
speaking countries.