From the Ministry of Social Development

We’re committed to making sure our clients are supported to stay safe and independent in their own homes. As part of this, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) funds the costs of medical alarm services to its eligible clients through their Disability Allowance.  We’ve once again negotiated with medical alarm suppliers to make sure our clients continue getting a quality service at a competitive price.

Continue reading “Changes to medical alarm costs and suppliers” →

All members of GREY POWER NZ are covered by a $2000 Accidental Death & Dismemberment Benefit. This is provided at NO COST by AIL of New Zealand.

Continue reading “Free to members: $2000 Accidental Death & Dismemberment Benefit” →

The talk was in July; if you missed it here are the slides from his presentation.

Here is the original announcement:

We are pleased to be able to invite you to a session led by speaker John Collyns, who is the Executive Director of the Retirement Village Association (RVA).

Continue reading “Retirement villages: a chance to ask questions” →

If you’re paying rates then you may be eligible for a rates rebate of up to $630. Fill in this very simple form to find out if you’re eligible.

Continue reading “Getting a bit knocked off your rates bill” →

Many people have shared their own ACC nightmare stories. Sandra Crashley researched her topic after being mistreated by ACC who were in collaboration with her GP practice!
GREY POWER members, Mike & Sandra Crashley used her accident claim experiences to demonstrate how numerous ACC employees have wasted taxpayers’ money in significant amounts.
Continue reading “New book on ACC problems” →

The Government has set aside $7.7 million for seniors in its Wellbeing Budget, which will see an ‘upgrade’ of the SuperGold Card, digital literacy training, and provide for ACC changes. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Seniors Minister Tracey Martin made the announcement on Monday, at the New Zealand Grey Power Federation Annual Conference.

More at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112836958/prebudget-announcement-77m-for-supergold-card-digital-literacy-training

They’re billed as retirement resorts – lakes, lifestyle, low stress and a bloke’s shed to boot.

But unravelling the complexity of retirement village contracts is anything but low stress.

Continue reading on Stuff. A good thing to swot up before our talk by the retirement industry speaker on 27 July.

New Zealanders are getting older and living longer, prompting the Government to reassess how it thinks about old age and retirement.They are now consulting on the draft strategy “Better Later Life – He Oranga Kaumātua 2019-34”

Stuff story | The draft itself (closing date for comments 3 June)

“Looking at care another way: flip thinking in care for the elderly” was the title of the talk given by Marian and Jan Westlake on 11 March at the City Gallery.  Grey Power Wellington was invited as we are a lobby group for the elderly.

Key ideas

• with the increasing number of elderly people need care we need to think differently. Be driven not by what we think they want but by what they think they want.

Allow them

• Autonomy, the elderly have not lost their minds
• Reciprocity. the elderly still want to contribute
• Dignity, we all want this

Differences between Netherlands and New Zealand

They discussed the differences between the Netherlands (NL) and NZ acknowledging that not everything was transferable which then led into outlining some of the approaches used in the NL.

One key difference was that the NL government will not provide funding to private providers which means that only 2% are private. Another is  that the government funding goes to care and the space is paid for by individuals. The is based on the assumption that everyone had a house or paid rent for space so they can continue to do so. All aimed to enable social engagement in the doing of ordinary things. All were also organised  to ensure the clients only needed to relate to 16-20 people. This was managed even in larger facilities.

Examples of approaches

• singles living together with shared facilities, including gardens
• multi-generational living which had been set up using run down parts of the centres of towns which they could repurpose
• 50+living: acknowledging the rise in divorce so people end up alone. This also had shared facilities
• Students living in the same place as elderly and getting free board for 30 hrs a month engagement with the elderly, This was an initiative by a care provider who because of changes in government policy had space spare.

Dementia care

This was covered separately though there is considerable overlap in the was the care occurs.

They reiterated that groups of no more than 20 are best

The guiding principles of dementia care are:

• compassion
• focus on opportunities not challenges
• in the community- several examples were in the centre of cities close to childcare and schools
• $ follow person
• regulations written to benefit the people

Caroline Hubbard

You may have noticed that in the latest national Grey Power magazine there’s a survey of our members. We are always being asked by politicians what our members think, or how policies affect you. We would like your help in making sure we can tell them by filling out this survey. Doing it online will make our job easier.
Click here.

What happens to older people in an earthquake? Ichiro Kawachi talked about this recently at the Otago Medical School in Wellington. His study in Japan took advantage of the good data on older people in Japan, plus a more detailed study 7 months before the 2011 Japanese earthquake that was followed by the Fukushima nuclear station disaster.

He was surprised to find that the main long term effects were not PTSD or depression, but dementia and metabolic syndrome (a catch-all encompassing diabetes, blood pressure, and diabetes). However, the people with lots of social capital (friends, good neighbours, participation in groups, trust in others) were the least affected. Severe damage to your house, especially if you had to move out, made you more prone to these problems. One of the conclusions he made was that people whose houses were uninhabitable should be moved to temporary and permanent housing that tried to preserve neighbourhoods and groups, and more controversially, be settled away from fast food places as these led to increased obesity and related problems.  There was even a “herd immunity” where people with low social capital moved to new places together with their high-capital neighbours benefited.

You can view the talk (slides & audio) at https://youtu.be/5LE02b42Y1g