ACC staffer faces inquiry after clients' records stolen

An article from the Press by Anna Turner

The personal details of dozens of Christchurch ACC claimants have been leaked after a staff member's home was burgled.
ACC confirmed yesterday that the home of a Christchurch ACC case manager was broken into on Saturday, August 3 and among the things taken was a notebook containing the details of 35 ACC clients. ACC general manager of claim management Sid Miller told The Press the case manager had kept a handwritten notebook of client details as an "aide-memoire" to help her while she was working out of Christchurch.
"She returned to Christchurch over the weekend and brought the notebook with her at her house," he said.
"Unfortunately, during that time her house was broken into and the notebook was taken. It is an unfortunate situation for a number of our clients."
The notebook contained details of the 35 people's claim numbers, details of their accidents, as well as more personal details such as dates of birth and bank account numbers.
ACC contacted every client that the case manager had dealt with this year, Miller said.
"There were 35 people we believe were in the book but we contacted all her clients [124] as a precaution in case any other details were in there."
Of the 124, ACC have spoken to 83.
Miller said a staff member keeping a notebook of details was not "at all in line with our policy and procedures". The case manager was not at work due to family circumstances, but when she returned would face a "full HR investigation".
One of the ACC clients, who did not want to be named, told The Press he was "horrified" his details had been leaked.
"It's got all of my information in there. My date of birth, my bank account number. Now, who knows who has it. This is a serious breach of privacy."
He did not understand why the case manager had the information at her home.
"It's a pretty major error."
The client said he was considering what legal action he could take.
Miller said ACC was "very apologetic" for the breach.
It is the latest in a long line of privacy breaches from ACC nationwide. Last year, the corporation accidentally sent out the details of at least 9000 claimants in what has been described as one of the worst breaches in New Zealand history. The details included personal information on nearly 250 clients from ACC's most secure unit - the sensitive claims unit. Full names, the nature of each claim and dispute, and individual claim numbers were among the information revealed. In 2010, ACC apologised after it admitted sending up to 2000 companies private information about workers' accidents that should have gone to other employers. The information included names, descriptions of accidents, injuries, treatment and ACC payments.

© 2013 Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9037801/ACC-staffer-faces-inquiry-after-clients-records-stolen

Complexity in abuse viewpoint

An article from The Press by Rosemary McLeod

Someone up there must love Felicity Goodyear-Smith, but some do not, and I guess her life would have been less complicated had she never met her husband. Goodyear-Smith is Auckland University's medical and health sciences professor. More controversially, a change in ACC policy, now reversed, that impacted on help for victims of sexual abuse has now been partly sheeted home to her door.
Her critics are amazed that she was commissioned to provide input on this sensitive area. They see her as stigmatised by close association with the family of former Centrepoint guru - and convicted child sex and drugs offender - Bert Potter. She is married to his son, and was formerly the GP for the controversial community, where the consensus on sexual relations between adults and children seems, in hindsight, to have been not only potentially damaging, but loony, and the use and manufacture of drugs there downright reprehensible.
At the core of criticism is the view she has put forward that sexual contact between adults and children may not necessarily be harmful. To be fair, she cites research which could point to that conclusion. To be fair to her critics, there are compelling counter-arguments.
Goodyear-Smith also attacks the idea of recovered memory, famously featured in retrospective sexual abuse claims made following counselling, which, by the way, she is not convinced does much good. You can see why she could be unpopular.
I rather like mavericks, and for that reason I admire Goodyear-Smith's perversity in taking up the cause of the injustices done to some men by false claims of sexual abuse of children. I expect this false reporting does happen, especially in custody disputes: it's hard to prove or disprove, and the harm caused by an accusation would be almost impossible to shake off.
She acts as an expert witness for accused men, set up a group that specialises in that area, and can hardly be surprised that some people see that as tending to minimise what her husband (convicted of sexual contact with a child) and her father-in-law (who got a stiff jail sentence) were charged with.
Because of her academic standing, that background may not have occurred to her as being a problem when she agreed to help ACC. But academic credentials aren't everything: perception counts, too.
It would have been wiser of her to see the big picture and opt out, and much wiser of ACC not to ask her in the first place, since her views are well known, and polarising. If you disliked her, you'd say it was a bit like asking a ferret to give advice on the care of chickens. If you supported her you'd advise her against it because it was sure to rebound on both her and the corporation, for whom she does other, less controversial work.
I'll give her this: we have lived in strange times with our attitudes to sex, and history may well look back at all of us and laugh. Plenty of seemingly sensible people supported the teachings of Bert Potter - who is unrepentant - in the commune's heyday. Adults were bonking all over the place, coupling at his direction, and in front of the children. Solemn TV documentaries were made, and clever people joined up, handing over their worldly possessions to the former pest controller's wise governance.
Then, seemingly in no time at all, there was a complete reversal of attitude, and we became obsessed with child sex abuse. What was all Arcadian innocence yesterday suddenly had a dark side, and ACC began shelling out $10,000 payments to women who claimed they'd been sexually abused, without asking for corroborative proof. Women swiftly signed up for this by the tens of thousands, to nobody's great surprise, and against that background Goodyear-Smith told a newspaper the "ACC scam's one of the biggest there is".
Not the most useful view to have on record when contemplating research destined to impact on policy in that very area. How odd - and perhaps revealing - that Goodyear-Smith didn't see that for herself.

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Ltd
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/rosemary-mcleod/4086350/Complexity-in-abuse-viewpoint

GPs uneasy over ACC's changes

An article from the Press by Rebecca Todd

Doctors are concerned about the ACC's new way of dealing with sexual abuse claims, a survey shows.
The ACC changed the way sensitive claims are handled last October, prompting criticism from counsellors and victims.
In April, the Government announced a review of the changes, which require those making claims to have a firm diagnosis showing mental injury caused by sexual abuse. Counsellors are also not permitted to diagnose.
A Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners survey released to The Press yesterday showed many GPs were concerned about the changes.
About 40 per cent of 150 doctors surveyed had used the new system, and 70 per cent of those had concerns. These included delays for patients in getting counselling and lack of clarity on who was qualified to make an assessment.
GPs were also concerned about how much information the ACC now required and problems using the process for children under 17.
The survey results are part of the college's submission to the Government's review.
Christchurch GP and sexual-assault clinician Claire Healy said the new system had made it harder for victims to get help.
Before it was introduced, referring sexual-abuse patients for counselling was "fairly easy", she said.
Now it was difficult, confusing and involved them having to tell their story to several people, she said. This meant many victims just "gave up".
"They've just suffered a huge insult to their self-esteem anyway and are feeling battered," she said. "The idea of going through something even more traumatic is just too much."
Figures released in March showed just 32 sexual-abuse claims for counselling were approved in the first two months of this year, compared with 472 in January and February last year.
ACC general manager of claims Denise Cosgrove said the number had fallen because the corporation had previously been supporting people not covered by the legislation.
"The recent task force on sexual violence recognised that there are gaps in the services available to people who have suffered sexual abuse," she said.
"The changes the ACC brought in last year did not create those gaps, but may have highlighted them."

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3842542/GPs-uneasy-over-ACCs-changes

ACC's cutbacks short-sighted

An article from the Press by Rosemary McLeod

A new complaint about ACC comes at a bad time for its controversial new sexual abuse claims regime.
If it's not a fake, it shows that bureaucrats and sensitive claims can make for a lousy combination.
Internal emails apparently written by Accident Compensation Corporation staff, and denigrating a client with sexual abuse issues, have been shown to a Sunday newspaper.
According to the complainant they were leaked to her by someone on the staff, which ACC denies, although it has apologised to the woman in the past for correspondence about her that contained what it called "negative information and inappropriate content".
If the emails are real, they are shockers.
The woman is described as a "mental health nutter"; the suicide of one of her children on finding out she was the product of incest is mentioned with the comment, "No wonder, with a birth mother like this one!"; and a staff member who supports the woman is described as believing she is, "the most wonderful miracle of the world and testament to rehabilitation and all that other babble. Silly bugger, she must have conned him as well".
That email continues: "We should have got rid of her a long time ago, one less nutter on our books." The woman has been dealing with ACC since the 1980s. She fell pregnant to her father three times, the first at the age of 11. He was convicted of incest and jailed.
There are two ways to go with this, and either reflects the complexity and sadness of the whole subject of sexual abuse and the harm it does.
If these are real emails, there have been people within ACC, and in its most sensitive area, whose attitudes to confidential information are appallingly unprofessional.
If the emails are concocted, that suggests the lasting effect of incest on a vulnerable child who has become a dysfunctional adult.
Either way the complaint confirms what we should never doubt, that sexual abuse is not some welfare-generated industry designed to sucker the taxpayer but a social problem causing pain and harm to many people, a good many of whom will not recover from it within the 16 therapy/counselling sessions ACC now regards as optimal, and yet more of whom will never get that help.
We're a weird society where the subject of sexual abuse is concerned. On one hand we join in outraged condemnation of the Catholic Church, for example, but on the other we have tended to view the problem - when we have to pay for it - as an elaborate con dreamed up by people who relish spending pointless hours in therapy or counselling.
Along with this must go a matching belief that those working in the field - doctors, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers - happily perpetuate the con, presumably because of the money they make from this demanding and emotionally draining work.
It's an interesting conspiracy theory, but I don't buy it.
More likely we introduced compensation for sexual abuse as part of ACC, but had no idea how extensive the problem would turn out to be.
Maybe initial cash handouts for victims weren't the brightest move; wherever there's free cash people will make themselves entitled to it; but having stopped that, it would surely be churlish to put up barriers to what help remains.
Cost-cutting seems the logical explanation for ACC changing its rules, though, making it harder for victims to get assessed, and slowing down that process by drastically narrowing the number of experts it deems capable of diagnosing what it now insists has to be "mental injury".
The system sounds cumbersome and insensitive, and angry therapists have walked away from the work for that reason.
According to Labour's victims' rights spokesman, Lynne Pillay, just 32 people were approved nationally for sexual abuse counselling in the first two months of this year, compared with 472 in the same time last year.
What's that supposed to suggest?
That the other 440 were lying, or that although they were traumatised enough to seek help, they were not "mentally injured?"
If this is economising, it's short-sighted.
Victims won't just go away because bureaucracy wants them to; harm doesn't evaporate spontaneously, although we wish it did; and one way or another we're bound to pay for our lack of belief in "rehabilitation and all that other babble".

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/rosemary-mcleod/3609140/ACCs-cutbacks-short-sighted

ACC sexual abuse policy perturbs counsellors

An article from the Press by Tina Law

Victims of sexual abuse are missing out on counselling because of ACC changes, Christchurch counsellors say.
In October, the ACC changed the way sensitive claims are processed. It is now asking for a firm diagnosis showing mental injury caused by sexual abuse. Counsellors are not permitted to give that diagnosis.
Cathy McPherson, who has been a counsellor since 1986, said ACC had made it so difficult for sexual-abuse victims to get counselling that many who needed help were not seeking it. Those who did seek help were waiting a long time for the ACC to rule on their claims. "They're just sitting at home waiting for the ACC to make a decision."
McPherson said she had received just two referrals for sexual-abuse counselling since October. Before then, she was getting about five a week.
Psychotherapist Errol Hay said the changes to the ACC system were abhorrent, and she believed therapy was being constrained.
Labour's victims rights spokeswoman, Lynne Pillay, said nearly 800 people seeking counselling to deal with sexual abuse were declined ACC assistance between July and November last year, and 331 people had their claims accepted.
ACC senior medical adviser Peter Jansen said the corporation had a legislative requirement to help people recover from injuries after an accident. In cases of sexual abuse, it was often a mental injury, but in the past a person who had been abused had been able to receive help from the ACC without it determining the person had a mental injury or what exactly the mental injury was.
The ACC was now getting that information so it could ensure the person was getting the right help, Jansen said. He believed counsellors were unhappy because the ACC was not allowing them to make a diagnosis.
The corporation was following the 2003 Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act that said not everybody was qualified to undertake diagnosis, he said.
Hay said she was still waiting for the ACC to supply a list of people who were allowed to do the diagnosing in Christchurch.
Jansen said it was the ACC's aim to make claims decisions within seven days, but he was not sure how long it would take to reach that goal.
Before October, the average processing time was nearly nine months, which was the legislative requirement and was inadequate, he said.
McPherson said counsellors believed the new measures were about cost-cutting, rather than making sure people got the right help.
Figures released under the Official Information Act show clients of the ACC's sensitive claims unit cost taxpayers nearly $58 million in the year to last June 30, compared with $48.5m in the previous year. Counselling made up $14.4m of that figure.

© 2010 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3216906/ACC-sexual-abuse-policy-perturbs-counsellors

ACC protest delivers 4000 signatures to Parliament

An article from the Press

Opponents of ACC's new guidelines for dealing with sensitive claims have delivered a petition with 4000 signatures to Parliament in Wellington.
Petition organisers said half of the signatures came from clinical professionals.
ACC Minister Nick Smith was unavailable to meet the petition's organiser, psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald, at yesterday's rally. However, Smith sent list MPs Michael Woodhouse and Nicky Wagner to receive the petition.
MacDonald said the number of professionals who had signed the petition sent a clear message to Parliament that the guidelines were wrong.
"It should be clinicians, not politicians, directing these guidelines, but an overwhelming number of people who signed it are professionals," he said.
Wagner said it seemed strange that so many clinicians had signed the petition when the Government had undertaken more than four years of consultation with professionals before announcing the guidelines, which came into force yesterday.
Labour leader Phil Goff, who met the rally, said the protesters had his party's full support.
Labour list MP Lynne Pillay said collecting 4000 signatures in under six weeks was "incredible", and called on the Government to halt the guidelines.
Opponents are concerned that the new guidelines will reduce access to counselling for sexual abuse victims and discourage them from seeking treatment.
Smith announced yesterday that the guidelines would be reviewed after six months.

© 2009 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3004438/ACC-protest-delivers-4000-signatures-to-Parliament