Kaitāia Hospital health coaches helping patients manage own care

Health coach Herepete Herbert is making a big difference at Kaitāia Hospital.

After almost three successful years of health coaches and health improvement practitioners (HIPs) working with general practices, there is now a health coach working in Kaitāia Hospital’s accident and medical (A&M) department.

Herepete Herbert has worked as a health coach for nearly three years and is currently based in Kaitaia Hospital’s A&M department, and a recruitment process is under way to find more people to join him.

General manager of mental health and addiction services for Te Whatu Ora Northern Region, Ian McKenzie, said health coaches and HIPs support people with mental health or addiction challenges.

Herbert helps minimise the stress people go through while engaging in the health sector by helping them to better understand and navigate the system. He also helps people not registered with a GP clinic and those who live hours away from one.

Herbert said many people feel anxious in general about engaging with the health system, and there are a number of factors at play contributing to their stress.

“They may have moved to the Northland area but still need to engage with a GP who is four or five hours away in Auckland, or they may be uncomfortable having to share their story repeatedly when faced with a new locum each time they visit their GP clinic.

“Some people get frustrated with the systems and then they just stop engaging. A lot of our GP clinics have to run with locum doctors, so that becomes a big frustration, where people are having to tell their story to different doctors.”

Herbert said that sometimes appointments are wasted as a person has to tell a doctor their story all over again, which causes them to disengage from managing their health.

“Language is a barrier, in terms of terminology that is used. Health literacy is also a big barrier. Having someone that is able to put things into more understandable language for people helps.

“That’s either from myself or from us connecting people to a nurse or doctor who is a specialist in the particular health concern that person is dealing with. I’ve been able to do a lot of that for people.”

And Herbert is already starting to see his hard work pay off.

“In my first two months, I had a couple that presented five or six times over a month or so. The task was set for me to help navigate them away from their current living situation, where they were living in a lean-to, into a pensioner flat.

“Previously, these people had been asked multiple times if they wanted to look into that and they had declined. By the time I engaged with them, they were ready.”

Herbert said giving them the support to get them into where they needed to be minimised their frequency of presenting to A&M. He reported that since the couple got their own flat, they have only presented to A&M once in the last three months.

Herbert has worked in mental health for a number of years now, including eight years spent as a community support worker with Te Mana Oranga, making him keenly aware of the need in the community for the kind of support health coaches can provide.

“We have three and a half health coaches in Kaitāia at this stage. It would be awesome if all GP clinics had a health coach. All of the health coaches in Northland already have regular meetings to support each other, but if there are more health coaches in the Far North, then we could work as a network to support each other. More hands make lighter work.”

McKenzie said funding received will allow Te Whatu Ora Northern Region to increase the number of HIPs from 18.5 to 22 fulltime equivalent (FTE) roles, as well as increase the number of health coaches from 22 to 26 FTE roles.

“We will be working with primary care to determine where best to place the new FTE [workers].”