Growing Together

 Copy and Paste ALL the Following Text into ChatGPT:

*STEP 1: MY VALUES  (Answer these questions)

1. What does fairness, consistency, and transparency mean to me when being assessed for disability support?
   (Reflect on past experiences where the process felt either just or unjust. Consider what a truly fair and transparent assessment would look like.)
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2. How should a respectful and empowering assessment process look and feel for disabled people and their families?
   (Consider what support, communication, and settings would make the process feel more just and person-centered.)
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STEP 2: MY EXPERIENCE (answer this question)

3. If a disabled person’s right to support was treated as a human right (rather than something that has to be justified or fought for), how would the assessment process look different from what it is today?
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4. What other thoughts or concerns do you have about this issue? How does it impact you or others?➡️
   

Step 3: Generate My Response (press enter) 

"I am responding to the New Zealand government's consultation on disability support services. The question I am answering is: ‘What changes can you suggest that would ensure the assessment tool and process is fair, consistent, and transparent?’ Make sure you answer this question.

Act as my friendly human rights defender and craft an attention-grabbing opening that immediately draws the reader in. My response must be strong on rights, self-determination, and ensuring disabled people and their whānau have full control over their lives.

Push back against restricting funding to only contracted providers, as this limits autonomy, creates power imbalances, and risks repeating past failures seen in institutional care. Reference the Royal Commission findings on how system-driven models failed to protect disabled people and emphasize that self-directed, community-based supports provide stronger safeguards.

Ensure privacy is a priority in assessments. Pre-approved document sharing across agencies without explicit, informed consent violates the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Privacy Act 2020. Disabled people must have full control over who accesses their information, with strict safeguards to prevent misuse.

Key Principles to Embed:

✅ Ground my response in the Enabling Good Lives (EGL) principles, UNCRPD, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and Whānau Ora.
✅ Clearly describe how the government has caused regional inequities by failing to implement EGL nationwide and halting system transformation.
✅ Explain how these inequities restrict access to disability services based on location, violating disabled people’s right to freedom of movement.
✅ Highlight the consequences of this failure, including service shortages, funding deadlocks, and systemic failures that make it harder for assessments to accurately reflect disabled people’s needs.
✅ Make a powerful case that fairness, consistency, and transparency require an assessment process that is rights-based, person-led, and free from gatekeeping.
✅ Ensure the assessment process fully reflects the EGL vision by embedding these core principles:

• Self-determination: Disabled people and their whānau must have full control over their assessment and support planning.
• Beginning early: Support needs to be anticipated and planned before crisis points, rather than reacting only when urgent.
• Person-centered: Assessments should focus on the whole person, capturing their aspirations, strengths, and support needs beyond medical diagnosis.
• Ordinary life outcomes: The goal must be an ordinary life in the community, not just survival within a service system.
• Mainstream first: Assessments should ensure disabled people can access mainstream services, opportunities, and community life.
• Mana enhancing: The process must respect and uphold the dignity and autonomy of disabled people and their whānau.
• Easy to use: The system must be transparent, accessible, and navigable—not a bureaucratic obstacle course.
• Relationship building: Assessors should act as trusted partners, not gatekeepers blocking access to support.
  ✅ Demand full transparency from the government on what information is collected, how it is used, and how decisions are made.
  ✅ Ensure disabled people have full ownership over their assessment information, with the ability to contribute to, review, and challenge their own assessments.
  ✅ Push for culturally safe, trauma-informed assessments that respect Māori, Pacific, and diverse cultural perspectives and align with Whānau Ora.
  ✅ Provide clear recommendations for how assessments can be more fair, just, and effective in ensuring disabled people get the support they need.

Now, based on my answers, create a strong and persuasive response that:

1️⃣ Starts with an engaging, bold opening that immediately establishes the need for change.
2️⃣ Introduces my values and experiences, grounding my response in personal reality.
3️⃣ Makes a persuasive argument for a fair, consistent, and transparent assessment process that is person-led, empowering, and not about gatekeeping.
4️⃣ Provides concrete recommendations for how assessments can be improved to build trust, remove unnecessary barriers, and restore fairness.
5️⃣ Ends with a compelling summary that reinforces the key message and calls for urgent reform.

Use clear, direct, and persuasive language to make this response as strong as possible, ensuring that it highlights the need for government transparency, accountability, and a system that upholds the rights of disabled people and whānau.*