ACC refuses to comply with review

An article from the The Dominion Post by Phil Kitchin

ACC has been accused of breaking the law by refusing to comply with a review ordering it to reinstate rehabilitation for a rape complainant.
The woman said she was making good progress under the Accident Compensation Corporation "training for independence" programme – until the corporation cut her from the programme last October.
She later successfully challenged the decision, with reviewer Rex Woodhouse concluding ACC "was wrong in suspending the applicant's ongoing entitlements". He quashed ACC's decision in July and said the corporation "must now reinstate the applicant's entitlements".
But ACC has told the woman, whose name is suppressed, that she must be assessed by another psychiatrist – at least the fourth different psychiatrist since her claim was accepted by ACC.
This comes as the Government considers whether to lower levies for taxpayers in return for reduced benefits.
The woman's Wellington lawyer, Johanne Greally, said ACC was breaking the law and trying to change the rules. Until ACC cut the woman from the independence programme in October last year, her only entitlement was that programme, Mrs Greally said. "The review did not tell ACC to give her another psychiatrist and then look at her entitlements ... ACC are bound by the reviewer's decision. That's the law."
ACC's website says a decision by a review "is binding on all parties involved".
The rape complainant said she felt as if ACC had put her on "a torture wheel ... all I wanted was the people back who were helping me to recover till they just stopped everything".
Under the training programme the woman, who alleged she was raped in 2002 when she was studying law, was helped by a range of therapists, including a psychologist and occupational therapist.
The man accused of rape was acquitted but ACC accepted that the woman had been violated.
Reports from the therapists said the woman was making progress and specialist ACC lawyer John Miller said her resistance to having to see another psychiatrist was not unusual. "There is almost an element of re-victimisation every time a sexual abuse victim has to go through another assessment ... it can be retraumatising."
It was "an abuse of the legal process" for ACC to refuse to abide by a review decision "and it almost seems like a vindictive response to losing a review".
If ACC wanted another assessment, it should reinstate the entitlements, then ask for a fresh assessment, Mr Miller said.
In the last assessment of the woman two years ago, Nelson psychiatrist Alan Doris said that, at the time of the alleged rape, the woman was a bright, independent law student who was also running a business. There was no evidence to "indicate the presence of a mental disorder prior to the rape". The woman now suffers from a range of disorders including eating problems and high levels of anxiety.
But at the review, ACC's lawyer relied on a "provisional" assessment from another psychiatrist whose opinion pre-dated Dr Doris's report by two years. The review said ACC did not have evidence for its view that the woman's health problems were not a result of the rape.
ACC claims management business manager Sue North said the woman was covered by ACC but, because the review questioned the basis on which ACC made its decision, the corporation wanted another assessment. "We cancelled the training she was previously getting because we felt it really wasn't helping. It makes no sense to restore the training before this assessment is done ... we believe our approach is reasonable."
Meanwhile, ACC Minister Nick Smith is considering a report suggesting lowering earners' levies, but at the cost of higher medical fees, longer waits and lower compensation sums. It could mean reducing fees for motorists with good safety records.
Labour leader Phil Goff has labelled the suggestion a move towards privatisation by "stealth".

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4318021/ACC-refuses-to-comply-with-review

ACC cuts hitting "most vulnerable"

An article from the Gisborne Herald by Jessica Wauchop

Gisborne’s most vulnerable people are being “hung out to dry” by ACC cuts that have been enforced by “stealth”, say representatives from social agencies and Labour Party leader Phil Goff. More and more people with disabilities, injuries or mental illnesses, and many elderly, are denied funding for treatment and care by ACC, they say.
Mr Goff yesterday met around a table with representatives from eight social and health organisations to discuss growing concerns about ACC. After an hour’s discussion, he was left “angry” at what he felt was short-sighted policy by the Government.
“There are two types of cuts being made. There are the ones ACC is being upfront about and put in legislation, and then there are the most disappointing ones which are being done by stealth,” Mr Goff said. “ACC has tightened their criteria for funding so much that most people cannot fit it now, and the people who are being adversely affected are our most vulnerable.
“Have we really become such a mean and despicable society that we take away from the people who can afford to give the least? From the people who don’t have a voice?
“The Government is not being held accountable for how these changes are affecting our people.”
Presbyterian Support manager Leslynne Jackson said changes to ACC funding were distressing and dangerous for people seeking counselling. “Before someone is given funding for counselling sessions, they have to meet with a psychiatrist to be assessed. They then have to wait months to see if their request is accepted and during this time they can still be expressing anxiety and/or depression and they receive no help.
“The assessment sessions require people to tell personal histories, often of abuse or sexual abuse that they are not equipped to deal with. They are then left to deal with it on their own. That wait has gone from waiting six weeks to six months recently.”
Many elderly were getting ACC funding applications denied, with their age being cited as the reason, said Frances Toroa from Age Concern and Tony Weatherly of the Hearing Association. "They are always using the words age-related as their excuse to not pay up. But so often their injuries have come from their past employment,” she said. “These ACC assessors . . . what qualifications do they have to say what is age-related and what is a deterioration from past work environment?
“Elderly should be able to expect Government policy to look after them . . . but it doesn’t.”
While some people did go deaf because of old age, others did not. ACC should come to the party and assist, he said.
Chelsea Hospital chief executive Julie McCarthy said more than half of their patients came through on ACC funding, but the hospital has had its budget cut by 26 percent. “ACC is very proud that their decline rate has gone up from 13 percent to 23 percent. But challenging ACC decisions is actually very difficult.
“We had one patient come in the other day, requesting all of her patient files because ACC was prepared to fund surgery on one shoulder but not for her other shoulder,” she said. “There was no difference between the injuries. However, she is working with a lawyer in Wellington because that is the only way to make ACC budge.”
The rate of elective surgeries funded by ACC was dropping at an alarming rate, said Ms McCarthy. “Our GPs will end up just putting patients on DHB lists because that way they know the surgery will get done — but this is just transferring costs.”
Representatives from CCS Disability and Workbridge Gisborne, who work with people with a range of disabilities, said many of their clients had been hit with funding cuts because they did not neatly fit into one category or another. They were also being forced back into work or on to a sickness benefit.
This short-term solution would only make the long-term social problem even worse, said Mr Goff.

Copyright © The Gisborne Herald
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article/?id=18792

Goff adds voice against ACC cuts

An article from the Whakatane Beacon

An Eastern Bay woman who wrote a plea for help to opposition leader Phil Goff described how her despair and worry over the Government’s decision to change the guidelines on supporting victims of sexual abuse had contributed to her suicidal feelings.
The letter in part prompted Mr Goff’s third visit to Whakatane this year, where he met with the woman and her counsellor to gain a greater understanding of how she was being affected by the rule changes.
Those changes, introduced as part of the Government’s new sensitive claims unit in October last year, mean abuse victims must be diagnosed with a mental illness as a result of the abuse in order to receive ACC compensation. And under the new legislation the number of people eligible people who were approved for funding for such therapy had dropped from 312 in October 2008 to just 12 in February this year.
“I was lucky enough to have a stable and loving upbringing, so it is hard for me to come to terms with something like this,” Mr Goff said. “But there is no denying people like this have been through an absolutely traumatic experience. It is something that will blight their entire life unless the get help to move on.
“For a person who has been through that experience, but then gets the right help, they are able to turn their lives around and move on. We used to cover that under ACC, but they have changed the guidelines on who qualifies.
“Those figures are ACC Minister Nick Smith’s own figures, produced as an answer to a written question in Parliament. The initial figure they had was six, but the minister argued ‘No, it’s more than double that’. There’s still a drop of 300 people who are not getting the attention they need and Nick Smith being picky like that makes a farce of the entire situation.”
While in Whakatane Mr Goff also addressed a Grey Power rally attended by about 90 people, where he spoke of his concerns over the ACC changes as well as the effects of the Government’s predicted hike in gst to 15 per cent – tipped to be a staple of next week’s Budget.

© 2010 Whakatane Beacon
http://www.whakatanebeacon.co.nz/cms/news/2010/05/art10007146.php