Mount<\/a> for a walk, release and talk\u201d.<\/p>\nThere were four people on the excursion, at most, she said.<\/p>\n
Matkovich gained Corrections\u2019 approval four times for the man to leave his bail address to go on the supposed wellbeing course. <\/p>\n
She admitted she \u201cmade out that it was Fab\u2019s when it was my own \u2013 not a project, but my own sort of thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Social worker dismissed<\/p>\n
Matkovich was dismissed from Fab, which made a mandatory report of her behaviour to the Social Workers Registration Board when it became aware of what she was doing.<\/p>\n
Police considered filing criminal charges against her for her misrepresentations to Corrections, but later confirmed no such action was being taken.<\/p>\n
The social workers\u2019 professional conduct committee then charged Matkovich with professional misconduct in January 2025. <\/p>\n
The charge notice said she had lied to Corrections, and that she had signed a character reference for the man on Fab letterhead, despite her manager not authorising it and instructing her to have no contact with him.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the committee, Matkovich said: \u201cAs a new social worker at the time I admit my faults, but as M\u0101ori we don\u2019t necessarily practice as a tick box … Holistic practice has always been my go-to and it worked for the accused, as well as many of my clients I did great work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a subsequent meeting with the committee, she said she picked up the man \u201cwith the goodness of my own heart, out of my pocket\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d go for a walk and meet a couple of other people that would come with us. That was it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do admit that I did … break a lot of rules, and I did use Fab\u2019s name when I shouldn\u2019t have.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Matkovich said she maintained a professional relationship with the man and did not cross boundaries, \u201capart from the lying\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I didn\u2019t put any emotional stuff on him, or use his situation being vulnerable to manipulate or take advantage, or anything for my own gain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Social Workers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal chairwoman Catherine Garvey said in the decision that Matkovich had disregarded the advice and guidance of her supervisor to maintain contact with the man around professional boundaries. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat she facilitated exceptions to [his] bail conditions on false grounds is a clear act of professional boundaries being crossed. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf, as asserted to the professional conduct committee, [his] mental wellbeing was poor and he was suicidal, then Ms Matkovich ought to have discussed this with her supervisor and considered an appropriate referral. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis exemplifies the impact that an erosion of boundaries may have on the exercise of professional judgment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The professional misconduct charge was proven. Matkovich\u2019s behaviour was found to have been \u201cdeliberate, dishonest and potentially harmful\u201d and she was censured.<\/p>\n
Although Matkovich had said she no longer intended to practise as a social worker, the tribunal said it would cancel her registration so it could consider her case if she tried to re-register in future.<\/p>\n
Matkovich was also ordered to pay costs of $14,835 to the professional conduct committee and $8632 to the tribunal. <\/p>\n
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after the course began, a supervisor became concerned the man was trying to \u201cemotionally manipulate\u201d Matkovich,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,95,42639,74893,167775,25207,124,2082,1345,169804,11517,156242,5158,184419,17707,49154,61386,13233,111,139,69,75839,1072,213,199,4758,61,810,28561,102,12767],"class_list":["post-346569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-and","tag-ankle","tag-carrie","tag-confined","tag-corrections","tag-could","tag-for","tag-home","tag-lied","tag-loses","tag-lying","tag-man","tag-matkovich","tag-maunganui","tag-meant","tag-monitor","tag-mount","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-registration","tag-social","tag-sports","tag-take","tag-taking","tag-to","tag-up","tag-walks","tag-with","tag-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}