The GM Māori Health is part of Te Herenga Hauora: South Island DHB Māori Managers Network and Tumu Whakarae: National DHB Māori Managers Network and regularly attends these forums to provide input into regional and national collaborative projects. These forums also regularly meet with Te Kete Hauora: Maori Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health.

Phone: Ext 2802
Hours: Monday to Friday
9.00am to 5.00pm
Email: 

A Māori Health Office Administrator is available 20 hours per week to provide administration support to the GM Maori Health, Maori Health Unit, Tatau Pounamu, and can assist with general enquiries pertaining to Maori health.

Phone: Ext 2631
Hours: Monday to Friday
9.00am to 1.00pm
Email: 

A Kaiawhina / Support Worker is part of the Social Work Team and works 20 hours per week from Community Services at Grey Base Hospital. The aim of this service is to provide information of services available, and assistance to patients and their whānau accessing West Coast DHB hospital services.

• Support for inpatients and outpatients accessing hospital services
• Support with appointments i.e. GP’s, clinical staff, social workers
• Access to kaumatua and chaplains for Karakia and spiritual needs
• Accommodation bookings at Whakaruru Whānau House (if available)
• Assistance when accessing community support services
• Assistance with the complaints process
• Referrals / liaison with other community health providers
• Assistance for staff regarding the application of Tikanga Best Practice Guidelines

Phone: Ext 2872
Hours: Monday to Friday
1.30pm to 5.30pm
Email: 

This is a temporary 0.8 FTE position (until July 2007) within the Cervical Screening Department located at Community Services at Grey Base Hospital . The purpose of this role is to plan, implement and evaluate Cervical Screening / Health Promotion activities on the West Coast as they relate to Māori and Pacific Island women by utilising the Ottawa Charter framework and the Treaty of Waitangi. This position utilises both clinical and promotional functions whilst actively contributing as a team member in working towards the National Cervical Screening Programme goals.

The Māori Nurse Smear-taker / Health Promoter takes a shared role in the provision of Cervical Screening Health Promotion / Education in partnership with the NCSP Health Promoter, with emphasis on Māori and Pacific Island women on the West Coast. There is to be a particular emphasis on increasing the coverage / enrolment rate of women who are unscreened or under-screened through health promotion strategies.

Phone: (03) 768-0499, Extn. 2853#
Email: 

One of the priorities in the Neighbourhood Nurses Innovations funding from the Ministry of Health is to address Māori health, which of course reflects the primary health care strategy. Creating a 0.5 FTE position with a focus on the Māori community has improved on this priority. The role of the Whānau Nurse is focused on the provision of nursing care that addresses the health needs of a caseload of individuals, families/whānau, schools and groups in a specific community. Care is provided across the lifespan, on a continuum encompassing health promotion, disease prevention and disease management. This role carries a particular (but not exclusive) focus on the needs of the local Māori community. The Whānau Nurse works within the Reefton community and is based at Reefton Health Services

Key objectives of the Whānau Nurse are:

• To assist local communities to achieve their own vision of health by supporting community development and undertaking population based public health activities with groups, families/whānau and individuals.

• To ensure that notifiable diseases are identified, investigated and measures put in place to minimise risk.

• To contribute to the achievement of optimum health outcomes for the designated population by providing health promotion/protection services.

Phone: (03) 768-0499, Extn. 6803#
Email: 

The Māori Mental Health Team of the West Coast District Health Board provides both clinical and cultural services to all areas of mental health on the West Coast. The team consists of 3 FTE (full time equivalent) staff that cover the area from Karamea to Haast. The skill base within the team consists of a variety of professional arms including a Registered Psychiatric Nurse, Registered Comprehensive Nurse, Social Worker, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.

A key objective of the Māori Mental Health Team is the implementation of Te Puawaitanga: Māori Mental Health National Strategic Framework, and other mental health frameworks, as well as continued implementation of the Mental Health Blueprint and Te Wero (Mental Health Workforce Development Plan).

The provision of an Outreach Immunisation Service actively follows up families where vaccination events have been missed, provides an alternative vaccination provider to primary care and includes the option of home vaccination, is to

• Improve childhood immunisation rates amongst Māori tamariki, children living in NZ Dep 8, 9 & 10 areas, and rural or isolated children other populations with low vaccination coverage and/or high rates of communicable disease
• Reduce Inequalities in immunisation coverage
• Increase immunisation coverage for under 6 year olds

The longer-term objective is to

• reduce communicable disease, and the primary care visits and hospitalisations associated with vaccine preventable illness.

The Ministry of Health's target for childhood immunisation coverage is that 95% of children will be fully immunised by age 2.

The OIS Māori Community Health Worker can be contacted at

Community Services
Grey Hospital
Phone: (03) 768-0499, Extn. 2464#
Email:

A Māori Health Promoter for kaumatua works part-time on health promotion initiatives for Kaumatua alongside the Planning and Funding Team, and is based at the West Coast PHO office in Greymouth.

Initiatives include keeping kaumatua as healthy as possible, ensuring they have appropriate housing (safe and warm etc), family/whānau support, physical activity such as muscle strengthening to reduce falls, improved nutrition etc.

The Health Promoter for Kaumatua can be contacted at the

West Coast PHO Office
Greymouth
Phone: (03) 768-1308 ext 804
Email:

The WCDHB now have a small pool of kaumatua who are available 'on call' when required.

These kaumatua have attended several events recently and provided leadership and direction in accordance with local Māori tikanga, values and customs.

These events include:

• Māori staff hui
• Māori health plan consultation hui
• diabetes hui throughout Te Tai O Poutini
• cardiovascular hui throughout Te Tai O Poutini
• opening of the He Oranga Kahurangi (WCDHB Dementia Care Unit)
• patient visits in Grey Hospital
• mihi whakatau for new GP graduate students
• staff supervision
• tangihana

For more information phone the Maori Health Unit (03) 768-0499, Extn. 2802# or 2631#