A Worthy Read

For more information: Contact: Pam MacNeill, DPA Leadership Mentor

E-mail: sevenof9@clear.net.nz

The Health and Disability Commissioner is hosting a National Disability Conference on 6 December 2010 for disabled people, their family, friends and wider networks.  The theme is "Making it Easy to Speak Up".

For more information
Contact: Mauryse Dix
Phone: 0800 11 22 33
Email: mdix@hdc.org.nz

Parent2Parent is holding a Conference entitled “No One Alone” on 20-22 September 2010.

The conference is seeking to address the issues of isolation and loneliness as major disabling factors in the lives of people with disabilities.  It will include personal accounts and experiences from disabled children and adults, the families' perspectives and experiences and the perspectives and experiences of teachers, principals and others working in education.

For more information: www.parent2parent.org.nz
The newsletter begins with a message from the Minister for Disability Issues, the Hon Tariana Turia, who recently attended the Community and Disabilities Services Ministers' Conference in Adelaide, Australia.

“It was an opportunity to share and learn about initiatives with Australian Federal, State and Territorial counterparts working in the disability areas,” she said.

The Minister was especially interested in hearing about the Australian National Need and Supply Model. This model helps explore different scenarios to give a better measure of the need and prediction of future demand for disability support services.

“We may be able to learn from this work and it is a conversation that I am keen to continue. It is also important that as the work evolves that the voices of the disability sector are also heard and have input,” she said.
Hmm. The Office for Disability Issues newsletter is definitely worth keeping an eye out for.

Ross Flood rflood@cpsociety.org.nz