The Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) is reviewing their services and facilities from the perspective of people with disabilities. The ADHB has commissioned Mary Schnackenberg to conduct a review of their services concerning people with disabilities with a view to making improvements where necessary.

So if you have an impairment or disability and had a recent hospital experience at Auckland City Hospital, Starship, Greenlane or the Rehabilitation Unit in Point Chevalier, Mary and her team would like to talk with YOU! This includes being an in or out patient or just visiting someone at these hospitals.

The Review will cover all aspects of the service from physical access to ADHB buildings and facilities, to how well information is provided to you and the ways staff relate to people living with disability.

The goal of this review is to assist staff to work even better with people with disabilities and to work towards full inclusion in the services it provides.
By talking with a wide range of people including ADHB staff, consumers of and visitors to ADHB services, the Access Review will make recommendations to support more effective collaboration.

One of the ways the review team is doing this is by undertaking focus groups with people with disabilities. These focus groups will take place in early May and the team would like to hear about YOUR experiences and thoughts.

The Review team consists of Vivian Naylor from the Barrier Free Trust and Denise Bijoux, a very experienced researcher who, among several other assignments, worked on the Step Up Auckland initial data collection and write up. Mary used to work for the RNZFB and has experience in issues of access to information for people with print disabilities.

The team has completed a literature review which has produced some fascinating results. The next important stage is to talk to a wide range of consumers with disabilities. Each participant in the consumer focus groups must sign a Consent Form. All comments will be kept anonymous in the report. Participants will be invited to attend a report back by the team when their final report has been accepted by ADHB. ADHB staff will also be interviewed.

To find out more please contact:

Mary Schnackenberg
021 983 652,
mary@aicomms.co.nz

Ross Flood rflood@cpsociety.org.nz