NATINA Letter of Concern to Minister of Disability Issues
6th April 2024
To,
Hon Minister Simmonds
Minister Disability Issues,
New Zealand.
Re: Concerns for the wellbeing of the disabled community in Aotearoa and need for trauma informed approach across disability issues.
Tēnā koe,
I am writing on behalf of the Neuroscience And Trauma Informed Network Aotearoa (NATINA) Board to share our concerns about the impact of recent changes made to the Purchasing Rules and EMS on 18th March 2024 which have severely impacted the disabled community.
NATINA are a charitable trust with a vision to create inclusive, safe, trauma informed schools and communities so that every ākonga belongs, learns and thrives. Our mission is to promote, support, educate and advocate for neuroscience and trauma informed approaches to create safe, inclusive, holistic, thriving learning spaces & communities. Our board members have a deep understanding of trauma across their communities and it’s impact on the wellbeing of communities.
As a network, we provide a platform for the community which includes families, educators, disabled and neurodivergent people, community leaders and professionals interested in becoming neuroscience and trauma informed so they can network, share and deepen their understanding and improve their practice towards becoming more inclusive through a neuroscience and trauma informed lens.
While many disabled people and families have written to you about the direct impact recent changes have had on their lives and requested the immediate reversal of these changes, (which we most definitely support), we wish to shed light on the collective trauma that your and Whaikaha’s words and actions have caused to the community, and wish to request that yourself, the government and Whaikaha adopt a trauma informed approach as you move forward in the future engaging with disabled people and their families.
Most disabled children, people and their families are exposed to discrimination on an ongoing basis due to the lack of inclusive attitudes, policies and practices across their communities and government sectors. This causes complex trauma and impacts disabled people and their families’ wellbeing negatively.
Your words belittling and devaluing the role of parents/families as carers, and the way the changes were made without any community engagement has triggered disabled people and families, and retraumatised them as their self-worth has been diminished. They have felt helpless, frustrated, and enraged as their autonomy, choice and control has been stripped away due to the restrictions imposed.
Most importantly disabled people and their families have experienced collective trauma as their self-worth, need for self-care and self-determination has been poorly judged by you/officials who never engaged with the community or took the time to know and understand their lived reality.
We are concerned about this collective trauma that the disabled community have experienced because of the following reasons, and we hope you can see the reason for our concerns about the long-term impact on disabled children, people and their families in Aotearoa.
• Trauma impacts every aspect of a person’s life, and can affect their physical, mental, emotional wellbeing significantly, and negatively affect their sense of self-identity and self worth. It puts them at much higher risk of chronic diseases, physical ailments, and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
• Trauma impacts the way a person perceives and processes information from the world around them, and can skew a person’s sense of reality, sense of felt safety and heighten sensory experiences which can cause distress and impair functioning.
• Trauma affects the ability to connect, engage and build relationships with others, and can lead to isolation, loneliness, distrust and harmful attachment patterns. The quality of relationships across families and communities, ability to care for others, and capacity to engage in collaborative respectful partnerships is likely to be compromised.
• Trauma reduces a person’ window of tolerance and their ability to self-regulate and cope with the minor daily stressors of life, which in turn can lead to increased distressed behaviours.
• Trauma puts individuals at higher risk of substance abuse, self-harm, and harmful coping mechanisms, especially when there is lack of appropriate supports to help with processing and healing of trauma.
The collective trauma that has impacted disabled people and families’ needs to be addressed and unfortunately our current mental health supports and services are not adequate, nor accessible to most of our community. Research shows that when people are well supported to process and heal their trauma, there can be post traumatic growth and this can benefit the individual positively. We request you to consider the following in order to redress what has been done, allow healing to happen, and ensure no further harm and trauma is brought upon the disabled community in Aotearoa.
• Acknowledge the hurt, harm and trauma that has been caused.
• Repair by connecting and engaging with the community and hear what the community has to say so they feel heard and seen.
• Restore flexibility, choice and control for disabled people and their families to use their funding as they see fit to support their good life.
• At the very least, ensure disabled people and family can access their funding to purchase mental health, wellbeing and counselling services to support with addressing the distress and sense of hopelessness they have experienced recently.
• Commit to honouring the Enabling Good Lives approach and ensure disability supports and services are EGL aligned.
• Resource Whaikaha and disability support services more adequately based on needs within the disabled community.
• Commit to adopting a trauma informed approach across the work of Whaikaha moving forward.
• Commit to adopting a trauma informed approach yourself and encourage this across the government as the minister for disability issues.
We hope you can understand the significance and severity of the risks that disabled people and their families have been exposed to because of the recent changes and messages from yourself, and the level of distress, harm and trauma this has caused them. Hence, we request you to address the matter with urgency in a way that allows repair and healing for the community.
We wish to reiterate our request that all engagement and work with regards to disabled children, people, and their families across Whaikaha, other sectors and across government needs to be trauma informed to ensure the wellbeing and prevent retraumatisition of the community. A human rights approach and an Enabling Good Lives approach are both trauma-informed as they align with the 6 key principles of trauma informed approach.
1. Safety: physical & psychological
2. Trustworthiness and Transparency
3. Peer Support
4. Collaboration and Mutuality
5. Empowerment, Voice and Choice
6. Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
NATINA would be happy to offer you and your staff free workshop/professional development on understanding neuroscience and trauma informed approaches that support community development, building collaborative partnerships, and allow for healing and prevention of re traumatisation of the disabled community. As the minister for disability issues you have the capacity to influence and shift the way our community is valued and supported, and we would be happy to support you to do this in a manner which allows for the mana of disabled people and their families to be held up rather than be diminished.
We are happy to meet with you and engage with you further on this matter and look forward to hearing from you.
Ngā mihi,
Frian Wadia MNZM
Founder & Chairperson
NATINA Charitable Trust.