VANZ News Issue 7
A Message from the Minister
Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Veterans’ Affairs
It’s great to see an increasing number of veterans taking advantage of Case Management in the Community to meet with Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand staff and discuss their needs and entitlements.
When I took over as Minister of Veterans’ Affairs, one of the first issues raised with me was the need for VANZ to better engage with the veterans they serve. Many veterans are fiercely independent. Often they don’t reach out for help unless they absolutely have to. They also prefer to deal with people face-to-face.
Case Management in the Community saw VANZ staff head out into the communities where veterans live; enabling veterans to meet VANZ case managers and services staff.
The scheme has been a real success. A regular schedule of visits has been established to ensure that all areas of New Zealand are covered with case managers travelling as far south as Invercargill, and as far north as Kaitaia and Kerikeri.
For the year ending 30 June 2011, 1841 veterans had attended group meetings and 369 veterans had face to face meeting with case managers. In recent months, the number of veterans attending Case Management in the Community meetings has steadily increased. In September alone, 268 veterans attended group meetings in Tairua, Coromandel, Gore and Invercargill and of those, 127 veterans had one on one meetings with case managers.
Feedback received from veterans has been extremely positive and Case Management in the Community continues to be an excellent way of ensuring veterans receive the services and allowances they are entitled to.
I invite all veterans to come along to a session near them.