Growing Together

Copy and Paste all the Following text into ChatGPT:

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STEP 1: MY VALUES (answer these questions)

1. What considerations in respect to a carer’s situation should be taken into account to link them to, or provide, the support they need in a way that upholds their autonomy, strengthens natural supports, and enables sustainable, person-directed care?
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2. How can support for carers be structured in a way that strengthens the collective wellbeing of the whole whānau, ensuring that disabled people are empowered to lead their own lives while maintaining strong, interdependent relationships within their family and community?
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STEP 2: MY EXPERIENCE (answer this question)

3. From your own experience, what has helped or hindered you as a carer in supporting a disabled person’s independence while also maintaining the wellbeing of your whānau? 
   
4. Do you have any other insights or experiences that could help shape a better solution?
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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 considerations in respect to a carer’s situation should be taken into account in order to link them to, or provide, the support needed?’ 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, be trauma-informed, and ensure 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.

Key Principles to Embed:

✅ Ground my response in the Enabling Good Lives (EGL) principles, UNCRPD, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and Whānau Ora.
✅ Clearly state how the government has caused regional inequities by failing to implement EGL nationwide and halting system transformation.
✅ Explain how these inequities restrict access to everyday citizenship rights based on location, violating disabled people’s right to freedom of movement.
✅ Highlight the consequences of this failure, including weakening natural relationships and restricting family employment opportunities.
✅ Recognize that caregiving is often not the role of just one person, but rather the family as a whole, requiring knowledge transfer, shared responsibilities, and sustainable intergenerational caregiving models.
✅ Acknowledge that maintaining the physical and mental health of carers is crucial, as burnout and declining health can negatively impact both carers and disabled people.
✅ Ensure carer support is structured in a way that strengthens disabled people’s independence, rather than creating dependency.
✅ Recognize the diverse and evolving roles carers play over a lifetime—including:

• Supporting and advocating for their disabled family member’s good life aspirations.
• Employing, managing, and training support teams.
• Governance and leadership in self-directed services.
• Building relationships, succession planning, and ensuring long-term sustainability.
• Passing on critical caregiving knowledge, skills, and responsibilities across generations to create continuity of care.
  ✅ Call for holistic, culturally appropriate support that aligns with Whānau Ora and enables disabled people and their whānau to thrive together.
  ✅ Advocate for EGL-aligned, flexible, and individualized carer support options rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, ensuring that each carer can access support in a way that makes sense to them.
  ✅ Emphasize the importance of ensuring that carer support does not undermine the disabled person’s right to independent living, decision-making, and community inclusion.
  ✅ Provide clear recommendations on how to link carers to meaningful, accessible, and practical supports of their own choosing.

To ensure fairness and effectiveness, the EGL approach must be embedded in how carer support is structured. This includes:

1️⃣ Self-determination: Carers must have choices in how they receive support, while ensuring the disabled person remains in control of their life.
2️⃣ Beginning early: Support for carers should be proactive, rather than crisis-driven, preventing burnout before it happens.
3️⃣ Person-centered: Carer support must be tailored to individual needs, recognizing the diversity of caregiving roles.
4️⃣ Ordinary life outcomes: Support should enable both carers and disabled people to live full lives, rather than reinforcing isolation.
5️⃣ Mainstream first: Carers should be able to access general wellbeing supports rather than being restricted to disability-specific services.
6️⃣ Mana enhancing: The process should uphold dignity, respect autonomy, and foster trust—not make carers feel like they must prove hardship to receive support.
7️⃣ Easy to use: The system must be accessible, transparent, and designed to reduce administrative burdens on families.
8️⃣ Relationship building: The system must support strong, sustainable relationships between disabled people, their whānau, and support networks.
9️⃣ Intergenerational caregiving & knowledge transfer: Support systems should enable families to pass on knowledge and caregiving skills to ensure sustainability over time.
🔟 Carer physical and mental health: Maintaining carers' long-term health should be a priority, as healthy, supported carers lead to better outcomes for disabled people.

By embedding these EGL principles, carer support will not just alleviate strain but will strengthen families, build sustainable care networks, and uphold the rights of disabled people.

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 balanced, rights-based approach to carer support.
4️⃣ Provides concrete recommendations for how carer support can be structured to strengthen, rather than diminish, the autonomy of disabled people.
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 an EGL-balanced, individualized, and rights-based approach to carer support.*