Growing Together

Copy and Paste all the Following text into ChatGPT:

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STEP 1: MY VALUES (answer these questions)

1. What mechanisms would allow disabled people and their families to adapt their supports flexibly and reflect on their evolving needs, without rigid reassessments? How can the system act as a partner rather than a gatekeeper?
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2. Instead of traditional reassessments, how can we support disabled people and their families to lead their own Good Life Planning—ensuring their supports remain relevant while avoiding unnecessary system-driven reviews, stress, and delays?
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STEP 2: MY EXPERIENCE (answer this question)

3. In your experience, what has worked best in keeping support relevant and responsive to changing needs—without unnecessary system-driven reassessments? How have self-directed planning, reflection, or flexible approaches helped you or your family adjust support in a way that felt empowering?
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: ‘How often have your needs and services/supports been reviewed or reassessed?’ 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.

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.
✅ Ensure reassessments are structured in a way that strengthens disabled people’s independence rather than creating stress, instability, or unnecessary barriers.
✅ Recognize that reassessments should be a tool for empowerment and ongoing support—not a bureaucratic obstacle or an eligibility test that undermines a disabled person’s security.
✅ Ensure the reassessment process fully reflects the EGL vision by embedding these core principles:

• Self-determination: Disabled people and their whānau must have full control over when and how reassessments occur.
• Beginning early: Support reviews should be proactive, ensuring continuity rather than waiting until crisis points arise.
• Person-centered: The reassessment must focus on the whole person—their evolving goals, changing needs, and strengths.
• Ordinary life outcomes: The goal must be to ensure a stable, fulfilling life in the community, rather than threatening loss of support.
• Mainstream first: Reviews should ensure disabled people can continue accessing mainstream services, opportunities, and community life.
• Mana enhancing: The process must respect the dignity and lived experience of disabled people and their whānau.
• Easy to use: The system must be transparent, accessible, and navigable—not a source of stress or uncertainty.
• Relationship building: Reassessments should build trust between disabled people and the system, rather than creating fear of cuts.
  ✅ Demand full transparency from the government about:
• How reassessments are triggered and whether they are genuinely in the best interests of disabled people.
• How often reassessments occur and whether the process is fair and person-led rather than focused on cost-cutting.
• Who has the right to request a reassessment—ensuring disabled people and whānau have agency over the process.
  ✅ Push for a strengths-based approach to reassessments, ensuring that:
• They reflect personal growth and evolving needs, rather than being used to question a person’s eligibility.
• Disabled people and whānau have the ability to self-report changes rather than being subject to unnecessary bureaucratic scrutiny.
• They do not cause unnecessary stress, delays, or instability that disrupts people’s lives.
  ✅ Provide clear recommendations on how reassessments can be made fair, just, and genuinely supportive.

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, transparent, and strengths-based reassessment process.
4️⃣ Provides concrete recommendations for how reassessments can be structured to empower disabled people rather than create stress or insecurity.
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 a fair, supportive, and transparent reassessment process that genuinely benefits disabled people rather than acting as a bureaucratic hurdle.*