More support needed for disabled people

Seven percent of disabled children need more help with personal care than they already get, according to their caregivers, Stats NZ said today. One in ten disabled adults also need more help than they get, according to the 2013 Household Disability Survey (2013 HDS).

In Supporting disabled people: 2013, out today, Stats NZ looks more closely at how disabled children and adults are being supported and if they have ‘unmet needs’ for assistance.

For 7 percent of disabled children, caregivers reported having an unmet need for help with the personal care, such as washing, dressing, and/or toileting, of the disabled child they cared for.

A small proportion of disabled children had caregivers who reported that they received help with domestic tasks – such as cooking, shopping, or other general housework – because of the child’s impairment. Just 2 percent reported receiving this type of support; however, 10 percent reported having an unmet need for such support.

Ten percent of disabled adults (about 89,000) had an unmet need for some form of assistance in the 12 months before the survey. This assistance was needed because of an impairment, and included help with cooking, shopping, and housework; heavy tasks like cleaning windows and mowing lawns; and personal care. “An unmet need for help might arise where some assistance was being provided but it was not enough, or where the disabled person was not getting any help at all with that aspect of their lives,” well-being and housing statistics manager Litia Tapu said.

While disabled women were more likely than disabled men to receive support (39 percent of women compared with 27 percent of men), they were also more likely to report having an unmet need for support.

Statistics on disabled people are now available from our latest well-being and labour market releases. We’ve added new questions to these surveys that allow separate findings for disabled and non-disabled people. The specific measure used to identify disabled people is the Washington Group Short Set (WGSS).

Improving New Zealand disability data has more information about the WGSS.

Read Supporting disabled people: 2013 for an examination of the types of support received by disabled people, and who provided that support.

Visit More support needed for disabled people