REPORT TO NZAP AGM, APRIL 2015

Public Issues

Thinking back over the year, the largest political and public issues event was of course the election. NZAP overall did well to both encourage members to get involved in their own ways, via John’s excellent “Election Issues Document”, and to represent our organisation via a well received guest post by myself on the popular blog site publicaddress.net, run by Russell Brown, which summarised the various parties policies about mental health treatment.

(See:

Whilst my blogging and media work is carried out “in my own name” I believe it is still positive for the profession to have a public voice that is a psychotherapist. In this vein, I note I continue to have my fortnightly slot on Radio Live, comment as required on other Radio Live shows and am now a regular back up host/co-host for Mike King’s Mental Health Awareness show on NewstalkZB.

In my official capacity as NZAP spokesperson over the last year, I have made the following public representations:

  • Provided support for the Court finding that the approach to seeking other medical information on ACC clients was not legal (see:
  • Appeared on a panel at the Social Media Club, Auckland, about “Sex and Social Media” (see:
  • Spoken out against the public statements made by Family First about the need for a review of the section 59 or the law around hitting children (see:

Also please also see attached reports from our AHANZ representative Joanne Witko and our ACC SCAG representative Victoria Smith.

I am happy, if re-elected to Council, to continue to hold the Chair for Public Issues.

Kyle MacDonald

Chair of Public Issues

REPORT TO NZAP AGM, APRIL 2015

SCAG Issues

There has been only one SCAG meeting to date this year. This was held after many months’ hiatus during contracting for the new ISSC (Integrated Services for Sensitive Claims) programme.

Most of the SCAG day was spent on the new programme. It was explained to the group and then all SCAG members were taken through the building to meet new team leaders and team members. The team that I met were all very keen to start work on the new programme. Some members were brand new to ACC while others had been there for several years.

The new ACC Minister Nikki Kay attended the meeting briefly and appeared to be very client focused in her intentions.

The ISSC will be officially launched on 2 March 2015. There is likely to be some publicity around it. I shall be attending this in my role as SCAG representative.

Feedback from NZAP members so far is mixed. It is clear that this is certainly a very different business model. The only people permitted to contract directly with ACC are those who were willing to become what is known as Suppliers. People or organisations that are prepared to run the business model employ Providers to carry out the work. ACC stated that sole providers could also offer themselves to become Suppliers.

A number of psychotherapists signed up with external Supplier firms. As Providers, they are still required to carry out a considerable level of administration activities. Suppliers are paid an administration fee; however, Providers are paid by the Suppliers and do not receive administration fees unless negotiated with the Suppliers.

The contractors for ISSC appeared to take a very linear approach and there are still some experienced psychotherapists whose contracts have not been accepted, in spite of the fact that they have been offering ACC counselling for years. I was one of those and kept contacting the ACC contractors to work through to the point where they would accept the contract.

Some members report that there are long delays in hearing back form ACC. This does not fit with the business model and I encourage members who are experiencing this to take it up with the Case Managers and their Team Leaders.

There is a large disparity in payments made to psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors. This has been an issue of contention prior to the ISSC going live.

I shall be addressing the above matters at the next SCAG group.

There have been some reports from members stating that the system is working pretty well. I have heard from ACC that there were initially some “hiccups” but that they believe they are on track for ironing these out.

The overall impression I have currently is that there are still some difficulties but that overall the new programme is beginning to work successfully. ACC are very keen to have regular communication from Suppliers.

Victoria Smith

SCAG Representative

REPORT TO NZAP AGM, APRIL 2015

AHANZIssues

Myself and Nikky Winchester are both members of AHANZ (Allied Health Aotearoa New Zealand) on behalf of NZAP and have attended most of the meetings since being appointed. We attempt to let each other know if we are attending in case the other one can’t, to try and get representation at all meetings.

I noted in an email a few weeks ago that I have been communicating with Kyle McDonald whereas Nikky had been communicating with Kirsty and some overlap occurred when signing off a BIM. Nikky and I agreed she would take the lead and check with me prior to sign off from Nikky. Some agreement and clarification around communication lines would however be helpful.

I also get forwarded a great deal of information via a variety of AH associations and professional bodies. So that I can filter this information better, any guidance would be helpful for me to know what specifically NZAP are interested in or not interested in.

Summary of meeting points:

  • There is a strong message coming from AHANZ and Health Workforce NZ that existing models of primary care are unsustainable, with the aging population and changing long term conditions such as obesity and diabetes becoming more prevalent. Consequently AH training providers need to think about whether their training programmes are meeting the changing needs of the population. Overall, the focus seems to be more on health rather than mental health.
  • The idea of core training for all AH professions was raised by AHANZ and Health Workforce NZ. An option has been suggested of having a generic AH training where people could perform a number of basic core duties such as nutrition advice, basic physiotherapy etc, then refer to a dietician or physiotherapist for more specialist care.
  • AHANZ is looking to clarify the relationships between regulated, non-regulated, registered and non-registered professions as well as removing the examples of non-regulated professions. NZAC has recently hosted a meeting for non-regulated professions.
  • Workforce Survey and Regulatory Authorities

Philip Grant thanked those members who had completed the workforce survey and advised that he had received a call from a Regulatory Authority regarding an enquiry from an AHANZ member requesting some workforce data. He asked members whether it would be helpful to invite the RAs to become members of AHANZ.

The following key points were raised:

  • What would be the benefits for the RAs?
  • Would it need a new membership category and what would the fees be?
  • Need to be cautious as some issues are divisive between some associations and their boards.
  • Noted that there are some areas of benefit for joint/closer working.

Peter Anderson agreed to approach his RA to test whether there would be an appetite for such a relationship.

  • There was a presentation from a PR company about how effective they can be in terms of promoting the profession and writing BIM’s etc. There are a few organisations such as NZAC that use this PR Company. He talked about the importance of meeting with MP’s and the chair of the health select committee Simon O’Conner.
  • Allied Health Aotearoa are keen to be more visual and present or have stands at member organisations’ conferences etc.
  • The suggestion was made of all professions having a ‘rap card’ briefly outlining what psychotherapy is and how to refer. This could be used by GPs and each other.
  • A great deal of discussion was had around the collection of statistics regarding our members. It seems many organisation do not collect stats or the same statistics and discussion was had around the helpfulness of each organisation collecting similar statistics e.g., where we work, did we get a job after graduation, gender and age breakdown. Health Workforce NZ said they are happy to help Associations with this collection by providing templates which could be used. There was a discussion around who collects this info: Associations or Boards? Dr. Graham Benny was adamant that Boards should not simply take a regulating role and that they should be doing more for their profession such as collecting statistics. If there were better statistics this could lead to more success within the profession e.g., right skills, right time, right place. The Physiotherapy Board currently collects data as well as regulates. It was noted by PBANZ that small organisations struggle with funding to do this. The reply from Dr. Benny from Health Workforce NZ was that we need to find a way to look at the whole picture and all be working for our profession and moving forward. The regulatory Boards should be doing more than regulate.
  • Dr Benny stated that more AH workforce was needed in the community and we need to think of ways to allow this to happen. This could come from a greater collection of statistics so training courses can ensure their graduates have the skills to work in environments where there is most need, such as primary health. Are the training institutions meeting the demands of the population?
  • The question was raised by Dr Benny – are regulatory bodies helping or hindering the profession? He reported that there will be pressure from Health Workforce NZ to challenge regulatory bodies to do more, not just regulate but think more about the profession and their needs.
  • ACC want to work with training providers to explain the legislation around ACC funded treatment.
  • Psychologists were left out of the Health Workforce NZ survey –they have written to HWNZ about this.
  • It’s become apparent in several discussions and documents that clinical psychologists are attempting to establish themselves as lead clinicians or experts within the AH profession. I am aware from my work in the DHB that psychology leaders met with DAH’s (directors of AH from many DHB’s) with a proposal that clinical psychologists become the lead worker or expert and other AH professionals working under them. Fortunately this was dismissed by the DHB’s.

Joanne Witko

AHANZ Representative