Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we do. The training is specifically around the act in the first place and the policies now, and we have peer review of all our work. They sit and listen to our conversations with our veterans. We have our team of rehab advisers who talk to them about any conflict issues or

Veterans Affairs committee  Our case managers have a wide range of backgrounds. When we are looking for recruits, we always look for someone who has had experience in a case management role in a previous life, because we understand that they need to be able to manage a number of things quite intensely for o

Veterans Affairs committee  It's our decision officers, and they base that on specialist reports, so they don't make a determination just themselves; we get specialist medical reports.

Veterans Affairs committee  When a veteran comes into our case management service, we clearly look at what their need is and whether they're high risk or not, in terms of mental health, or they might have high surgical needs or mobility needs, so we prioritize those. With every veteran who comes into our ca

Veterans Affairs committee  That's not quite correct. If a veteran pre-1974, under the old act, had a medical condition that was accepted as related to service and a pension were paid, it might be dependent on the level of disability, and that would affect the decision on the dollar amount. With the new act

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, there have been. Historically, there was a feeling that their service wasn't valued Zealand when they came back, settled back into the community, and so forth. It was quite a difficult period for them. What the New Zealand government did was to make a public apology. We had

Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of the veterans who come to Veterans Affairs once they're no longer serving, at the moment the largest group we look after is older veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, over the age of 70 and to 100 years old.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sixty-eight is our total staff at Veterans Affairs. We have 16 case managers, and each case manager will be responsible for an average of 200 veterans, depending on the level of care required. We have many more veterans who are not actively case-managed. We are aware of them. We

Veterans Affairs committee  Since the new act has come in and we have started using those statements of principles, what has happened is that some veterans who were declined conditions under the old act have been able to reapply under a clean slate and have actually had the conditions accepted. It's a much

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a team of decision officers who make decisions on entitlements for our veterans. If a veteran comes to us and says they have a medical condition linked to their service, then the decision officers who are part of Veterans' Affairs make those decisions using the statements

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll respond to that. With our veterans who need to travel for treatment outside their local area, all we require is a phone call. They have a case manager they will ring and explain that they have an appointment. We make sure that their pre-approval is in place so they can go a

Veterans Affairs committee  Our veterans wouldn't normally need to get from one end of New Zealand to the other.

Veterans Affairs committee  Probably the longest distance they would have to travel for treatment not in their local area is perhaps two to three hours. It's not significant.