(Question 6)

What specific measures would your party introduce to improve dementia care and support for people living with dementia and their families?

National

Dementia is one of the biggest health and ageing challenges facing New Zealand, affecting tens of thousands of New Zealanders and their families. It is important to prioritise initiatives that improve care. That’s why we have grown the healthcare workforce by hiring 900 additional doctors and 2100 additional nurses, provided funding for an additional 24,000 planned care treatments through Budget 2026, and created 12-month prescriptions.

Greens

The Green Party are committed to investing more in the prevention of ill health, including dementia. This means warm, dry housing, adequate incomes, a transport system that supports active travel and reduced air pollution, and reducing advertising of alcohol, including in sports. We support funding the community organisations on the ground who support good health, by removing restrictive contracts and funding these providers to give the wrap-around support that enable higher trust in these healthcare providers and allow them to do more to keep people well. As part of our manifesto policies for Seniors, the Green Party have committed to Launch a dedicated long-term strategy for the needs of an ageing population which encompasses the holistic wellbeing of kaumātua, elder abuse prevention, ensuring income is equitably accessed and sufficient to live comfortably.

Labour

Fixing the health system will be at the heart of the next Labour Government. Our policies are firmly focused on access and funding for primary care and prevention, in order to turn around the long-term challenges facing our health system.

Under Labour, every New Zealander will get three free doctor’s visits a year through the new Medicard. Labour.org.nz/medicard  We will announce further health policy closer to the election.

N Z First

(responded with a generic statement on all matters ‘Health’.)

New Zealand First will drive a comprehensive reform to improve health for New Zealanders. Our 2023 coalition agreement prioritised a number of actions which recognised the important of a bipartisan agreement and long term, sustainable change.

Recommendations from the Health Select Committee Enquiry and the Ministerial Advisory Group on Aged Care will inform future work. Health for Seniors must include the practical investments need to stay well along with the system reform that delivers the right care, at the right 􀆟me and in the right place.

Access to Primary Care will be improved through cohesion with all the services that will deliver early intervention, diagnosis and treatment involving GPs, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, paramedics, physiotherapists, nutritionists, occupational therapists, chiropractors, or any specialists that can

contribute to better health. With better cohesion there is an opportunity to reduce demand on GP practices while delivering better health.

In addition, New Zealand First will deliver a comprehensive reform of care including respite, in-home community, residential, convalescent and rehabilitative care. This reform will recognise the publicly funded, privately delivered system that can reduce hospital system pressures while encouraging investment in the sector.

Opportunity Party

Most people living with dementia are cared for at home, by family, for years before residential care becomes necessary. Our Citizens’ Income would move towards a tax system that offers greater flexibility and support for those with caring responsibilities.

Our Ageing with Dignity policy is built around making care sustainable: a general practice older people can get into, clinical support that comes to the home rather than requiring a hospital trip, reliable follow-up after discharge, and practical help adapting a home as function declines. It also means treating the carer as part of the care, with respite that is genuinely available rather than rationed, and a shared health record so a diagnosis, medications and care plan follow the person between services.

(Question 7)

Does your party support fully funding and implementing the national Dementia Action Plan? If so, over what timeframe?

National

The challenge is not simply producing plans, it is ensuring that actions are practical, affordable, and deliver measurable results for parents and families. We are focused on improving access to diagnostics, reducing wait times for specialist assessments, strengthening primary and community care, and ensuring older New Zealanders receive the support they need closer to home.

Greens

We have committed to the implementation of the national Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan and working with the sector to develop an appropriate road map for its implementation over the next five years. We also recognise the importance of this plan and believe that the wider health and care system is systemically underfunded. Significant tax reform to increase the tax base by requiring major corporations and the super-rich to contribute more will enable this, so that we have the funding that is needed to fully implement the plan.

Labour

In Government, Labour put the Dementia Action Plan in place, and we support progress towards its goals. While our health system is under significant strain and facing cuts under the current Government, it’s important progress on important, positive initiatives such as this are not lost.

When you look at health funding over decades, a pattern is clear: National cuts health, Labour protects it. Our health policy is focused on prevention, and we will announce further prevention policy closer to the election.

N Z First

As in (6) above.

Opportunity Party

We support the intent. The Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan was published in 2020, was never funded to deliver, and its timeframe has now expired. We would refresh it early in our ten-year cross-party Health Plan, and implement it sequenced against workforce and diagnostic capacity.

(Question 8)

How would your party improve access to respite care, community support, and specialist dementia services?

National

We have invested a record $2.1 billion of additional funding into the disability support system to help ensure disabled people, families and carers can access the support they need. We’re also reforming the Disability Services Sector to provide more flexibility and choice in disability support funding, so disabled people and their families have greater control over the support that works best for them.

Greens

The Green Party will improve access to respite care, community support, and specialist dementia services through rights-based health funding, expanded individualised care models, and workforce strategies for the health workforce that grow and develop the workforce we need to ensure we attract, develop and retain the workforce we need. Additionally, we need to see mechanisms in place with the system that focus on accountability, commissioning, and transparency.

Labour

We are committed to ensuring New Zealanders have access to care close to home, no matter where they live. Labour will release further health policy closer to the election.

N Z First

As in (6) above.

Opportunity Party

Respite depends on the Carer Support Subsidy, where the rate, the rationing of allocation, the loss of unused days and the claiming process all need attention. Community support requires more senior clinical capacity based in the community rather than in hospitals, nursing that visits the home, and funded clinical follow-up after discharge. For specialist services the bottleneck is diagnosis, so we would support diagnostic capacity alongside earlier detection and set a national dementia pathway within the ten-year Health Plan.