Carers 'expected' to help with sex 

There are calls for an inquiry into the training of New Zealand care workers after some Nelson workers claimed they received training on how to help clients achieve sexual satisfaction.

The workers say their former employer, New Zealand Care, has been running seminars with sex toys, showing staff how to help clients masturbate.

New Zealand Care strongly denies the allegations but the Ministry of Health is now looking into them.

Six Nelson-based care workers say what has been expected of them in the care of their disabled clients is well beyond the call of acceptable duty.

"We got down to the nitty gritty of masturbation and our job was too assist and help with masturbation," says Janet Gambell, Former care worker.

The workers say intimate care seminars provided by New Zealand Care specifically dealt with the sexual needs of the intellectually handicapped, with sex toys involved in the training.

"We're treated like a prostitute'. I'm sorry, I have nothing against prostitution, I'm not a prostitute," says Gambell.

Unhappy with how New Zealand Care have addressed their concerns, the workers put them to local MP Nick Smith, who has headed calls for an inquiry.

"In my view people earning minimum wage should not be subject to these sort of expectations. That frankly amounts to abuse," says Smith, Nelson MP.

But New Zealand Care, which runs support homes in communities throughout the country, strongly dispute's the workers' version of how the seminars were run.

"I am adamant that this did not occur. New Zealand Care would never condone asking or instructing staff in any way to masturbate clients," says Donna Mitchell, NZ Care Group Ltd.

But it says intimate support and relationship and sexuality training can be delicate areas in which to deliver staff training.

"When discussing something that is as personal as this...staff may have at times not been really comfortable with that. That's the whole purpose of supporting them in that environment," says Mitchell.

The Ministry of Health is now planning to look into the matter further.

"What we need to do is work with New Zealand Care, listen to the different perspective including the six women who have raised this issue, listen to the perspectives of the person taking the training and others who attended the training, and make sure we are doing that in an open-minded and balanced fashion," says Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Chief advisor public health.

For the workers that can't happen soon enough.

"It takes special person to work with these lovely people and they are lovely people. But to touch them personally, I couldn't do it. I felt like trust has gone, just felt really dirty. I can't go into it again, I just can't," says Gambell.