Does New Zealand Need a Ministry for Vulnerable Adults?

STUFF

Donella Knox, resident of Blenheim , with daughter Ruby Knox in 2016

A service dedicated to protecting vulnerable adults could help prevent another murder such as that of the autistic woman Ruby Knox, advocates say.

Blenheim's 20-year-old woman was a non-verbal, sometimes violent, autistic woman. , with a severe intellectual disability as well as a series of serious health problems. She was choked to death by her mother and sole caregiver, Donella Knox, in 2016, who then told the authorities that she felt abandoned by the medical fraternity

while Knox was sentenced to four years of prison last year. Dr. Rosemary Marks and the Chief Medical Health Officer of the NMDHB, Nick Baker, discuss the review of Ruby Knox's Disease

BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF

Dr. Rosemary Marks, Chief Medical Officer of Development, and NMDHB Chief Medical Officer Nick Baker Discuss the Care of Ruby Knox at a press conference Wednesday

. the needs of adults with disabilities have been met, "there will be more Rubys"

READ MORE:
* Criticism triggered by the murders of Ruby Knox NZ's Nursing
* Donella Knox: A mother forced to fight too long
* The mother of Mercy killing Donella Knox to read the criticism caused by the death of his daughter
* Picton reveal a fight to raise autistic children [19659007] Marks asked the government to establish an adult backup service, to protect vulnerable adults like Ruby. Such a service could have saved her, says Marks.

STUFF

Donella Knox is sentenced for the murder of her daughter Ruby last year. 19659006] In the months leading up to Ruby's death, Knox was "in tears and stressed" and went regularly to the Wairau Hospital emergency room in Blenheim, believing that his daughter was in great pain.

She threatened to hurt Ruby twice, suggesting once that she would drive them both off a cliff, and later saying, "I do not know what I'm telling him. would. "

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SUPPLIED

Autism NZ chief Executive Director Dane Dougan Supports Call for Reform of Disability Support Services

. Their reluctance has been shared by health professionals across the country, said Marks. "An appeal to the police would not result in a different outcome."

An adult protection service, similar to Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Vulnerable Children, could investigate the protection of vulnerable adults without necessarily involving the police.

"If there had been an organization like Oranga Tamariki to have a deeper conversation, it could have prevented that."

    

Donella Knox with her 8-year-old daughter Ruby, who was diagnosed with severe autism spectrum disorder when she was a child.

The CEO of Autism New Zealand, Dane Dougan, said that he supported Marks.

"There are still families with autistic adults who have nowhere to go, and no one to turn to.It would be ideal if there was a place where they could go, To ensure the safet Dougan says, "The people who helped her were in the job for the right reasons. The fault lies with the system, and I think that is what we hear across the country.

    

BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF

According to Marks, without making radical changes to disability services, "there will be more Rubys".

Marks also called for an early warning system that would electronically gather patient information on general practitioners, hospitals, disability services and Oranga Tamariki. Unusual behavior, such as increased visits to the general practitioner or the hospital or reduced use of financial support, would trigger an assessment of social work

and demanded better mental health services for people with disabilities intellectual. She stated that Knox was Ruby's only caregiver and that she was receiving the most funded respite care. in the region and maybe in the country, said Marks. She refused to put Ruby in residential care, against the advice of staff.

"There is no system to ensure that all those providing respite care to children and adults with disabilities receive appropriate training." Many families lack confidence in the system.

Families struggled to find appropriate care providers because they had long been underfunded and had not received training on best practices, said Marks. She called for better healing for caregivers and better monitoring of standards of care in residential care centers.

Dougan hoped that the government, the Department of Health and other DHB would follow Marks' recommendations

. She never should have gone where she was in Blenheim, it was a little more complex than autism, she had medical problems and other problems for which she was being treated, and Knox had never had the help she needed. [19659007] "I just have the impression that the system failed him, and he fails us all.I hope people will take this report seriously."

Toni Atkinson, Director of the Disability Support Group of the Ministry of Health, said two pilot programs were about to lead to broader reform of the disability sector

saw the publication of the recommendations following the tragic death of Ruby Knox as a useful step to help reduce the chances that similar tragedies will occur. "

– The Marlborough Express