News and Notices

How a hāngī transformed a routine ECG clinic into a day of whakawhanaungatanga and togetherness


Involving patients in their care takes many different forms - and a recent event held by our Hapori Ranga Hinengaro team shows how feelings of belonging, community and shared purpose can help people feel included and empowered to seek wellness.

preparing

Tāngata whaiora preparing the hangi.

Nēhi ā Hapori Ranga Hinengaro (Community Māori Mental Health Team nurse) Suzie Paenga explains:

"The majority of our tāngata whaiora in the community need to have ECG’s done annually as part of their physical health assessment in accordance with certain medications they are taking.

"As we have limited access to an ECG machine until our ECG is delivered, I thought it would be a great initiative to bring all our tāngata whaiora together and achieve this in one day. "

ECG wellness clinic day

The mental health community team who works with Māori worked together in collaboration and created ECG wellness day that included putting a hāngī on.  

Suzie says collaboration with other health and community representatives made for an effective approach closely tied to our values.

"This was an occasion for our tāngata whaiora to come to our whare haumanu (clinic), not just for their mental health needs but for a positive experience with the wider whānau of mental health. It was an opportunity for our whānau to come together in a collective manner as Whakawhanaungatanga (process of establishing relationships) is one of our Te Whatu Ora Nelson Marlborough values."laying

"I spoke with Niki Davis, the community Wellness nurse and she offered her assistance and suggested we do physical observations and screening for smoke free and green card prescriptions.

"The tāne (men) were included in assisting with the hāngī. This promotes their taha hinengaro, wellbeing, sense of belonging and independence. It is a strong value for Māori to have collective connectedness.

"Together we were able to complete a holistic assessment with future goals towards achieving better health outcomes which incorporates all the foundation pillars of the Te Whare tapa whā model.  

Community support and good feedback

Prizes for attending the day were sourced from our generous local community, such as the Warehouse, Timezone and Countdown.

The wellness clinic day was an opportunity for the community team that work with Māori tāngata whaiora to meet the obligations of Te Whatu Ora by meeting our Vision, Mission, and Values.  The day was a positive experience for those who attended, Feedback from tāngata whaiora summed it all up: 

“The day was well worth it."wahine2

“I had a great time.”

“I loved it.”

“It was a mean hāngī."

warehouse

The Warehouse generously sponsored prizes

countdown

And Countdown kindly sponsored the event