The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is bolstering its efforts to support vulnerable sections of society, such as schoolchildren and survivors of sexual abuse.
ACC has partnered with charity St John for an initiative called “Make it Safe May” – an educational module delivered to 10,271 students across New Zealand through the ASB St John in Schools programme, which helps kids learn how to prevent injuries while still having fun. The programme focuses on four leading causes of child injury requiring hospitalisation: burns, poison, falls/slips, and drowning.
According to ACC, unintentional injuries are the third-leading cause of death in children under 14, with more than three children hospitalised each day for falls, more than five children hospitalised each week for burns, and about four children hospitalised for poisoning each week. Around three children die from drowning at home annually.
According to ACC, it has expanded the team that manages sensitive claims. Previously located only in Wellington, the team is now present in seven other locations: Whangarei, Newmarket, Hamilton, Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Christchurch and Dunedin.
From 85, there are now 140 recovery partners (previously called case managers) working one-on-one with survivors. According to ACC, these personnel all have same high level of training as was previously the case when sensitive claims were all managed centrally.
“The benefit of a greater presence regionally allows ACC to better support clients and engage face-to-face with clients,” said ACC. “Having a regional presence also allows us to build greater relationships with providers, NGOs and other organisations that support our clients.
“It also creates a more stable workforce in the regions, which ultimately ensures that clients have consistency of care.”
ACC also reiterated its mission to protect clients’ privacy, in compliance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 that governs how it collects, stores, secures, corrects, uses, and shares information.
According to the organisation, access to sensitive claims on its claim management system are restricted to only those staff members that require access to support that client. It also conducts regular reviews of sensitive claim access, access controls, audit logs and the employee code of conduct. ACC said it treats accessing information that an employee does not need to see as serious misconduct.
