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Consumer Forums 

The Ministry of Health’s Disability Services is holding a series of forums around the country in March / April seeking feedback from people using  DS funded services. Please go along if you can or make a postal, on-line or phone submission We need to complain loudly about Needs Assessment Service Coordination not accepting referrals for people with autism who don’t also have intellectual impairment. And the lack of services of any kind for adults. Personal stories from people with autism are particularly powerful.

Disability Services Consumer Forums 2009 

Consumer Forums and Consortiums evolved from the recommendations of the Consumer Participation Project conducted in 2004 as part of the Disability Services Directorate’s implementation of the NZ Disability Strategy.

The aim of the project was to establish ways of increasing consumer participation and to ensure input into the directorates activities. Feedback and evaluation in 2004, as well as feedback from Forums held early in 2005 and again in 2006 and 2007, show widespread support within the disability sector for the Forums and consortiums to continue.

Forum Itinerary
This year it is intended that the consumer Forums will be used to gain feedback on Disability Services strategic priorities. Two hours has been allocated for each Forum and four hours including lunch has been allocated for the Hui and Fono. It is anticipated that the strategic planning feedback will take up to an hour. Twenty Forums are planned for 2009 in the localities listed below.[I'm sorry but for some reason I cannot attach the itinerary with the dates and places for each forum and fono but if you follow the link below for the Ministry of Health's DS February newsletter you will find it -HS]

An email and 0800 number have been activated to allow consumers to contact the Ministry for information about the Forums and to register their planned attendance.  
Email: dsdforum@moh.govt.nz  
Phone 0800 DSD MOH – 0800 373 664 The February newsletter from Disability Services can be found here http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/disability-news-newsletters-issue27

Teacher aides pay parity work stopped

You might also like to complain to the Minister of State Services, Tony Ryall, who has stopped investigations into the low pay of school support staff, which includes teacher aides. We know that a good teacher aide can make a huge difference to our children with autism in the classroom but because of the poor pay and conditions, it is hard to keep them. This work was designed to improve this, but has now stopped.  His email is tony.ryall@parliament.govt.nz or phone 04 817 6804 or write to Hon Tony Ryall, MP, Minister of State Services, Parliament House, Wellington (no postage required)

http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/2009/02/because-were-worth-it-pay-equity-hub.html

The February newsletter from the Office For Disability Issues can be found here.  http://www.odi.govt.nz/publications/e-mail-update.html 

IHC’s informative and newsy HOT ISSUES for February is here http://www.ihc.org.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=1652

The new Government’s recent response to the report last September from the Social Services Select Committee Inquiry on the Quality of Care and Services Provision for People with Disabilities is here.

http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Papers/3/1/d/49DBHOH_PAP17698_1-Government-Response-to-Report-of-the-Social-Services.htm

The 2009 Asian Pacific Autism Conference is being held in Sydney 20-22 August.  The line-up of speakers includes Francesca Happe, Eric Fonbonne, Tony Attwood and Wendy Lawson http://www.apac09.org/index.php

A new website www.neurodiversityinternational.org.uk asks Is neurodiversity the new multiculturalism?

My favourite website for autism news in the US and internationally is www.autisticadvocacy.org.

An investigation by the Sunday Times (UK) has discovered that Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who claimed a link between vaccines and autism, misused his data. However, the effect of his claims on immunisation rates has been significant over the last decade.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

 

PhD scholarship opportunity at Victoria University:  Speech Generating Devices for Students with Developmental Disabilities

A significant number of children with developmental disability lack speech and might therefore benefit from provision of a speech-generating device (SGD). However, the mere provision of a SGD device is often not sufficient to ensure effective use of such systems. Consequently, there is a need for research to develop effective procedures for teaching students with developmental disabilities to use SGDs for functional, academic, and social communication in the classroom. This PhD scholarship would seek to recruit a PhD student to undertake applied intervention research. The research program would focus on developing effective procedures for teaching students with developmental disabilities to use SGDs for achieving a range of communicative outcomes in typical classroom settings.

The deadline for applications is 15 May, 2009. Application forms are available from www.victoria.ac.nz/scholarships

Further information is available from the contacts below.

Application contact: Philippa Hay Scholarships Manager Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington Telephone: +64-4-463 7493 Email: Philippa.hay@vuw.ac.nz

Research contact details: Professor Jeff Sigafoos School of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 17-310, Karori Wellington,Telephone: +64-4-463 9772 Email: Jeff.sigafoos@vuw.ac.nz

Vice Chan cellor’s Strategic Research Doctoral Scholarship

School of Educationa l Ps ychology and Peda gogy