DPA hopes that the adoption of a Manatū Hauora Health of Disabled People Strategy will contribute to improving the health and wellbeing of disabled people by looking at the health and wellbeing of disabled people holistically; setting targets, expectations and duties on health care providers; and measuring outcomes.
Our submission to the Ministry of Health on the strategy comments on:
- The need for the strategy to ensure that it is meeting the rights set out in Article 25 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability (UNCRPD) as a minimum.
- That principles in line with the UNCRPD and Enabling Good Lives (EGL) are needed to underpin the strategy
- The need to explicitly address the intersectionality of demographics currently underserved by the health service
- The urgent need for measures that specifically target people with a learning disability as they have some of the poorest health outcomes of any demographic
- That the strategy must cover all areas of health as well as access to health services
- The prioritisation and resourcing of initiatives to improve health literacy and access to primary health care for disabled people
- Addressing the affordability of health care and funding inequities within the health system
- That full access to sexual and reproductive health services for disabled people is ensured
- That equal access to health screening programmes is ensured
- That the accessibility of health information and interacting with health system communications channels is addressed
- That disabled people’s access to and participation in mental health services needs to be ensured and measured
Read DPA's submission on the Manatū Hauora Health of Disabled People Strategy.