Locality Plan pilot hailed as ‘unprecedented opportunity’ for region’s health needs

LITTLE BUILDERS: Rosemary Teinangaro with daughters Maria and Zoe Teinangaro showing off their creations at the H B Williams Memorial Library Easy as Kids DIY Workshop, where they got to build their own bird house or coin bank. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

Te Tairāwhiti has been chosen as one of 12 regions to pilot a Localities Plan — a whānau and community-led approach to health planning and priority setting which will inform future health investment.

The Localities Plan, Te Aka Whai Ora-Māori Health Authority and Iwi Māori Partnership boards are three key instruments for change identified in the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act.

“The Localities Plan is an unprecedented opportunity for whānau to identify their health priorities, to state their expectations about how health and wellbeing services should be provided and to ensure improved access to the range and quality of services they require,” Tairāwhiti Localities Plan director Amohaere Houkamau said.

“We want whānau to tell us what their health priorities are, what they need to become more active players in improving their own health outcomes, what health services, support and care they need, and how and where these should be delivered.”

The Toitū Tai Rāwhiti Localities Plan will comprise profiles on four sub-localities — Ngāti Porou/East Coast, Tūranga Urban, Tūranga Rural (which encompasses Te Karaka, Muriwai, Manutūkē and Matawai) and Te Māhia, who have elected to join the Toitū Tai Rāwhiti collective.

“Our whānau know what they want,” Tūranga Health chief executive Reweti Rōpiha said. “They also know what they aren’t getting in terms of their healthcare needs.

“During the global pandemic we spent hours canvassing the issues, hearing directly from whānau, many of whom felt the services available to them were inaccessible, physically and culturally, and misaligned. This is the opportunity to change that.”

Over the next six weeks the Toitū Tai Rāwhiti Localities Plan steering group will be conducting table talks, hui and social media engagements with a wide variety of whānau.

“We will not be going out to ask people the same questions they were asked 12 months ago when they were preparing their Covid-19 preparedness plans,” Ms Houkamau said.

“We want to take out a presentation that captures and reflects what they have already told us regarding their health needs and priorities — and check in with them to see if we got it right and ask if there are any changes and reordering of priorities that they would now like to make in light of recent severe weather events.”

The plan will also draw on the data, information and insights in existing iwi health dashboards, wellbeing surveys and reports prepared by the previous Hauora Tairāwhiti (district health board) and public health organisations.

They will be piggy-backing on the work Tūranga Health is doing in terms of the whānau and community-orientated vaccination drives they started a couple of weeks ago, work the Rongomaiwahine Iwi trust has already undertaken in Mahia and whānau engagement work Ngāti Porou Oranga is undertaking on the Coast, leveraging health promotions and programmes to further gather the views of whānau.

“We need whānau to participate in this process,” Toitū Tai Rāwhiti Localities Plan communications lead Rawinia Parata said.

“Their views and experiences are the demand side of the better health service and outcomes we want for Tairāwhiti. The systems rethink, including decisions around commissioning services, holding the whole health system accountable and a compelling health and wellbeing cost-benefit analysis, will be the supply side of the Toitū Tai Rāwhiti Localities Plan.

“We now have a website which will allow whānau to feed in directly and our contact details are also available for a one-on-one conversation.”

The first draft of the Tairāwhiti plan will be submitted in June.