Dear Ministry of Health,

To whom it may concern,

Kia ora David Clark or to any of your team who may intercept this communication.

My name is Kate Aschoff and I am a young person based in Wellington. I am currently running an inquiry into diffrent aspects of the Mental Health System in Aotearoa, with one of them being Respite Care.

On the 13th of December 2017 a RNZ journalist released an article about DHB's recording incidents of self harm or otherwise (suicide) in Respite Care facilities in their district. The article states "Three DHBs do not officially require respite workers to have any qualifications at all, and only Wairarapa insists every centre has a nurse rostered on during the day. Eight DHBs have clinical staff overseeing respite care, but are not required to actually be at the facilities."

The author goes on to reference you in your role as minister with "Health Minister David Clark declined to comment saying it was a matter for the DHBs."

I wanted to officially inquire with you as current Minister of Health, if you still stand by this statement? The statement by which I mean is that in your professional and personal opinion DHBs in Aotearoa do not need to or can choose not to:

A) Record incidents of harm in Respite Care
B) Have Respite workers with set qualifications
C) Have clinical staff onsite at facilities

If you do still stand by this statement then I would like to inquire into your reasoning and thoughts behind it.

If not, I would like to inquire into any action you or the MoH have taken to change this protocol.

Thank you for your time.