Spectrum Care

We've seen some big conversations happening across the disability community recently.

One thing we've been reminded of is how important lived experience is.

Too often, assumptions are made about disabled people instead of listening to disabled people. But nobody understands the realities of disability better than the people who live it every day.

So we'd like to hear from you.

What's something people often get wrong about being disabled?

Share your thoughts below. 💬

For nearly 18 months, Adrian's walking frame gathered dust.

He only used his wheelchair.

His physiotherapist wasn't sure he'd ever return to his previous level of mobility.

But at our Maranga service in Wellington, the people around Adrian never stopped believing in what was possible.

Through regular pool sessions, encouragement, and a willingness to keep trying, Adrian regained the strength and confidence to use his walking frame again.

Then another challenge came.

After more than six years in a job he loved, Adrian was told he was no longer needed.

Once again, his support team stepped in. Together, they found a new role at a local pub, keeping him connected to his community while doing something he loves.

Good support doesn't assume what's possible. It reveals what is.

We're incredibly proud of Adrian and the team at Maranga. 💙

Care was part of Ojasvi Singh's life long before it became her work.

Her grandfather served as a doctor in the army. Her father carried that same care into their community, supporting families who needed it.

That legacy brought her to Spectrum Care in 2018 as a Community Support Worker. Today, she is Service Manager for five homes in West Auckland.

But the reason she's here hasn't changed.

“I want to make sure the people we support feel safe, respected, and that their houses feel like real homes, not just services.”

Last year, Ojasvi helped bring the first Diwali celebration to our North West region. It was an opportunity for people to share who they are, see parts of themselves reflected, and be invited into the cultures of others.

“It created a real sense of connection and belonging.”

The people we support have taught her just as much.

“They’ve taught me the power of seeing the world from someone else’s perspective.”

And if there's one thing she'd want someone new to this work to understand, it's this:

“This work is all about the people you support. Every action, no matter how small it seems, can make a huge difference in someone’s life.”

Care didn't start with her role. It started earlier than that.

Now it lives across five homes.

In the way people are supported to live.

In the way a house becomes a home.

Over the past two weeks, we've shared our concerns about the Disability Support Services Bill.

Now we'd like to hear from you.

👉 Complete our two-minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58Y9FZD

For the first time in New Zealand, the purpose and rules for Disability Support Services could become law.

Some say the Bill will bring greater clarity and consistency to the system.

Others are concerned about what it could mean for disabled people's rights, the role of families and whānau, and how support is accessed in the future.

These decisions matter.

And the people most affected by them deserve to be heard.

We've put together this short survey to help inform Spectrum's submission to the Select Committee.

The Bill is currently before Parliament and submissions close on Friday 12 June.

Some nights are about having fun. Some nights are about belonging. Our Luau Night was about both. 🌺

The celebration brought together the people we support, whānau and staff to share Pacific culture through music, food, dance and connection.

Fa'afetai, mālō 'aupito, vinaka vakalevu, meitaki ma'ata and fakaue lahi to everyone who helped make the evening possible.

And we're only just getting started. Next up: Fiafia Night, hosted by our Samoan Group.

Pink Shirt Day was two weeks ago. A lot has happened in our community since then.

But one thing is clear.

Kindness is more important than ever.

Thank you to the people we support for putting smiles on our faces, not just on Pink Shirt Day, but every day. 🩷

Growth deserves to be celebrated. Especially in a sector that asks so much of people every day.

Over the past nine weeks, staff from across Spectrum Care, Homes of Choice, and Spectrum Foundation have taken part in our Coaching, Diversity and Leadership programme, building confidence, challenging themselves, and growing alongside their peers.

Now in its third year, the programme continues to evolve alongside our kaimahi, shaped by the realities of the work they do every day.

Leadership in our sector is deeply human. It asks people to hold complexity, build trust, support others through hard moments, and keep showing up with care.

Congratulations to this year's graduates, and arohanui to everyone who makes this programme possible. 🙌

The same day we shared our thoughts on recent decisions affecting disabled people in Aotearoa, the Government introduced the Disability Support Services Bill.

This Bill changes what disability support is.

Not just how it is funded.
Not just how it is managed.
What it is.

It defines support as “a contribution”, provided “from within public funding available”.

It states that “families and whānau have responsibility in the first instance for the well-being of their members”.

And it says that before receiving support, people should use “their resources and any other support that is available to them”, including from “their family, whānau, and their community”.

That is a profound shift.

It moves disability support out of the system’s responsibility, and into something people are expected to piece together themselves.

Families already carry so much.

They carry it because they love their people.
Because they have to.
Because when support is delayed, reduced, or missing, someone still has to do the caring.

But love is not something the government gets to rely on to fill the gaps.

It should not be expected to make up for what the system chooses not to provide.

When the government steps back, that pressure doesn’t disappear.

It lands in homes.
In relationships.
In bank accounts.
In bodies.
In the everyday trade-offs people are forced to make just to keep going.

This Bill doesn’t sit on its own.

It comes at the same time as decisions on housing, transport, and funding that are all pointing in the same direction.

Less being provided.
More being expected.

That’s the shift.

And we'll all feel it.

Our mates at The D List NZ are running sessions, both online and in person, to help people understand the Bill and support them to make submissions on it.

If you want to learn more or have your say, this is a good place to start: https://thedlist.co.nz/were-under-attack-take-action-online/

Let’s get loud about this.

In the past few weeks, a series of decisions have been made that will have a real impact on disabled people in Aotearoa.

Kāinga Ora has scrapped its target of having 15% of new homes built to universal design standards, dropping from 562 accessible homes last year to just 97 planned this year.

The Lottery Grants Board is closing the Individuals with Disabilities fund, which has helped people for decades access things like mobility vehicles, essential equipment, and assistance dogs, removing a direct pathway for individuals to access this kind of support.

And changes to the Total Mobility Scheme are now being finalised, reducing subsidies and making it harder for people to qualify.

Three separate decisions. Same outcome.

Disabled people in Aotearoa already experience worse outcomes across many major measures of wellbeing. Housing. Income. Health. Safety.

This is why.

The systems that are meant to support people are becoming harder to access.

Harder to find a home that works.
Harder to get where you need to go.
Harder to get what you need for everyday life.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s direction.

And there’s a symmetry here that’s hard to ignore.

Spectrum Care supports people to live full lives in their communities. When transport becomes harder to access, those lives shrink.

Homes of Choice builds accessible homes because the need is already there. When accessibility is deprioritised, that need only grows.

Spectrum Foundation funds initiatives that strengthen the disability community. When individual access to funding is removed, the pressure builds.

We do what we can, with what we have.

But the responsibility is shifting in the wrong direction.

Away from the systems designed to support people, and onto the people themselves. And onto the organisations trying to hold the line.

This is the marginalisation of the already marginalised. And it’s not okay.

Lives are getting smaller.

And so, we have to become louder.

This is us doing that.

And in your own way, we encourage you to do the same.

Here in Aotearoa, colonisation changed more than land, language, and systems. It reshaped how human worth was understood. Value became tied to productivity, independence, and fitting within systems that made little room for difference.

And in that shift, disability came to be understood through lack. Through what was absent, rather than what was present.

But te ao Māori has long held a different truth.

A person’s difference did not diminish their mana, their whakapapa, or their place in the collective. They remained whole.

In some traditions, that difference carried honour. A connection to wairua and to parts of the world not witnessed by all.

And that understanding reaches beyond Aotearoa.

Across many Indigenous cultures, disability has long been part of the human story. Not outside community, but woven through it.

What many of us are working towards now, dignity, belonging, and recognising disabled people as whole, is often spoken about as progress.

But maybe it is also remembrance.

A return to something people have always known.