Strong belief from the Chief

LONG SERVICE: Turanga Health now has six staff members with 20 years or more of service with the Maori health organisation . . . they are, from left, Louise Kemp, Libby Kerr, Lisa Tamatea, Reweti Ropiha, Shirley Keown and Billy Babbington. Image by Strike photography

Turanga Health has just celebrated six staff achieving two decades of service with the health provider. Over their time with the company, it has transformed into a major player in the provision of health services — now serving over 3000 whanau here every year. Hayley Redpath takes us on the journey . . .

When 28-year-old Reweti Ropiha bin 1997 he took over a shy, fledging company with an opening cash balance of $300 and fewer than 10 clients. Recently returned from four years of overseas travel, and feeling enlightened, the Rongowhakaata/Ngai Tamanuhiri tane was ready to apply himself to new challenges.

“I had a sense that there was an opportunity there, not just for myself, but for the rohe.”

He never dreamed that 22 years later he would be leading a company with a $5 million budget, employing 65 people, and enhancing the lives of over 3000 whanau every year.

“That has been half of the attraction of this company — it doesn’t stand still. We’re always looking for new opportunities,” says Reweti. “I can tell you, this is not a space of boredom.”

Reweti and five other staff — Billy Babbington, Libby Kerr, Lisa Tamatea, Louise Kemp and Shirley Keown — have all been acknowledged recently for 20 years of service to Turanga Health.

Reweti grew up in Manutuke, a whangai son of Wikitoria and Ratu Ropiha. He went to Manutuke School, Lytton High School, and has completed a double degree in politics and business and a Master of Business Administration through Waikato University.

He credits his parents with teaching him about the importance of living within Rongowhakaata and Ngai Tamanuhiri and the connections with whanau.

“It was a simple upbringing — you were there for others and we all shared. We helped people we didn’t necessarily know, but on mum’s and dad’s orders. We followed their approach to common sense.

“I craved that when I was overseas, and I wanted to help participate in, and restore that, when I came back to Gisborne and started at Turanga Health.”

Turanga Health was created at a time of colossal change in the health sector — when community level organisations were playing a greater role in primary healthcare delivery.

Taking health services to the whanauAcross the country, Maori health providers were flourishing. In Gisborne, Te Runanga o Turanganui-a-Kiwa created

Turanga Health as its health arm. It was a new kid on the block and very much in the shadow of neighbouring Maori health provider Ngati Porou Hauora.

“Everything was evolving and we moved very tentatively,” remembers Reweti.

“The space was shifting from centralised power bases, to one of using other approaches in the delivery of health services.

“Turanga Health saw this as an opportunity not to replicate what was existing, but to embrace an approach of wellbeing that would include ‘kanohi ki te kanohi’, taking the services to the whanau in whatever setting and introducing a wider holistic lens.”

In 1998 Reweti and his small team took the cash-strapped Vanessa Lowndes Centre, where Reweti had once worked, under its wing. By now Turanga Health had 150 people on its books.

Then it launched the extraordinarily successful Kaumatua Programme.

“Our approach for health service delivery for older people was about keeping whanau in their home for as long as possible. We knew we were only part of the jigsaw, but we saw the need for a place for pakeke to congregate and thrive in the space of wellbeing.”

The Kaumatua Programme is a monthly marae-based gathering for the elderly with a holistic health focus. Transport, activities, service presentations, service connections and socialisation are provided for the region’s precious taonga.

Over the next four years, Reweti oversaw Turanga Health develop its unique approach and style of operating.

In 2002 Turanga Health took the first in a series of steps that would see it become the large-scale, proficient business it is today.

It teamed up with two general practice associations (Pinnacle and First Health) to form Turanganui Primary Health Organisation (Turanganui PHO). This model was unique in that the owners were two independent practitioner associations and an iwi health provider.

Aware that the PHO needed a powerful chief executive, Reweti brought in the expertise of the region’s senior expert in primary health, Keriana Brooking, from Tairawhiti District Health Board.

“That was a bold move!” remembers Turanga Health chairman Pene Brown, who along with Reweti has watched Ms

Brooking’s rise in the health sector to become a Deputy Director-General at the Ministry of Health.

Nowadays Turanga Health boasts a general practice in Te Karaka with 1520 registered patients, over 20 onsite workplace wellness programmes, one GP, 12 nurses working alongside whanau in their homes, dozens of community-based health wellness programmes, and 3000 people on its books.

Always one to play down his own involvement, Reweti is pleased that five fellow staff, many he interviewed himself, are being acknowledged for their 20 years of service to Turanga Health.

“This is a chance to celebrate them.”

Reweti wants to acknowledge the good deeds of the many who have contributed to Turanga Health’s journey.

“There have been countless efforts and contributions — not just my own.

“We can all stand proud of Turanga Health.”

When asked about the future of Turanga Health, the 49-year-old father of three boys, says the windscreen is bigger than the rear-vision mirror.

“More than ever, Turanga Health continues to unlock responsive approaches to whanau demand, whereby staff can continue to provide real-time care in the communities and homes of whanau.”