Agewell Health promotion for older people in New Zealand

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Carers in New Zealand

A new website providing information for New Zealanders who care for family members is part of a wider package of government support for informal carers throughout the country.

Launching the website in Wellington, Ms Dyson said one in five New Zealanders are estimated to have caring responsibilities for family members who have a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, age-related illness or are recovering from serious injury. "Many carers feel isolated, ill-informed and undervalued. This website, funded by the Ministry of Health, will provide a raft of health and disability information that carers need about such things as financial assistance, support services, and how to cope with medical and personal needs.

It will also link carers to each other, enabling them to share ideas and experiences throughout the country." Ruth Dyson said the website was part of a partnership that had been set up between the Ministry of Health and Carers New Zealand to support carers, in line with the New Zealand Disability Strategy's objective to 'value families, whanau and people providing ongoing support'.

She said that the government was also implementing a range of other initiatives to support carers, including: training programmes for carers, including a 'by Maori for Maori' programme providing training and access to information and support networks; a review of needs assessment services to ensure that carers' needs are recognised; a review of government policy regarding families who apply to be paid caregivers for family members; and establishing national networks of carers, including a network for those who provide care for people with high and complex needs.

To find the website go to carers.org.nz

New Magazine Launched

Carers New Zealand has launched a new consumer magazine for family carers, along with other resources to help those who care at home for a sick, injured, frail or disabled family member. The Magazine "Family Care NZ" is a quarterly magazine distributed free to 20,000 carers nationwide. From December copies will be sold in bookshops and retail outlets to reach invisible carers who are not part of any formal support network. For more information email info@carers.net.nz or view the Carers New Zealand website.

NEW Needs Assessment Co-ordinators

Carers New Zealand have put together a list of the contact details of Needs Assessment Co-ordinators for New Zealand.

Caring for Older People in New Zealand

Christine Milligan joined the Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, U.K., as a Lecturer in September 1999 and is currently the Director of Taught Postgraduate Studies.

Christine's research interests are focused around: mental health and older people; informal care-giving; voluntarism and social welfare and therapeutic landscapes. She is currently engaged in research that considers the changing place of informal care-giving. This work is concerned with the longer-term transition of care for older people from domiciliary settings to the nursing home and how we can develop more inclusionary sites of care for informal carers. This is a comparative study being undertaken in both New Zealand and the UK.

View her report

Websites of Interest

Caring for Carers is a community funded group that supports those people who are caring or have provided unwaged care for a family member or friend with a long-term mental, intellectual or physical condition or disability. This support is provided through practical assistance, education and advocacy. The website features a monthly newsletters containing carer education and support group information, coming events, poems, a summary of the talk by the last guest speaker and articles of interest for carers.

The Carers Australia website has an excellent and comprehensive variety of resources available online.

The Residential Care Line is part of the Auckland District Health Board Website. It is an excellent resource for finding our more about all aspects of caring including Needs Assessment, Carer Support, Rest Home care and much more. Although it is based in Auckland, most of the information is given on a national basis, in particular the contact for a Needs Assessor throughout New Zealand. Well worth the look.

The British Medical Journal is well worth a search. An article on Caring for Older People: Carers by Anne F Travers, senior registrar in public health medicine, England. The articles discusses that caring by families and friends is the backbone of community care. Carers face physical, emotional, social, and financial problems. They need recognition, information, and support from the health professionals with whom they and the person they care for come in contact. Much information is available to assist carers and to enable their doctors to help them in their caring role.

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Website last updated 30/06/2010