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H U I -TA N G U R U – PA E N G A - W H ĀW H Ā 2022
HAUORA MĀORI KI PEGASUS
ABOUT PEGASUS HEALTH Pegasus Health supports many aspects of health and wellbeing in Canterbury. We provide services and support to general practices and community-based health providers to deliver quality health care to our communities. Our purpose is that ‘all people living in Canterbury lead healthy lives’, and our role is to ‘together make Canterbury the best place to receive and provide primary health care’. Our values of inclusive, connected, strive and integrity, underpinned by our guiding principle of Manaakitanga, create the fabric of ‘our ways of being’ as an organisation. We are committed to ensuring we overtly, purposefully and strategically thread equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi through all we do and how we operate. We ensure equity is prioritised in our considerations, structures, decisions and processes so that we are able to improve the health outcomes of all our people and communities in Canterbury.
THREE AREAS OF FOCUS:
Reduce disparities between the health of Māori and other identified groups within the population of Canterbury and reduce barriers to the timely access to appropriate health services.
Greater participation of the population of Canterbury in health-related issues through proactive consultation and communication with communities and in keeping with the spirit of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Improving the integration and liaison between healthcare providers and others in Canterbury to ensure that health care services are coordinated around the needs of the population of Canterbury.
MEET OUR KAIMAHI WORKING TO PRIORITISE HAUORA MĀORI IRIHĀPETI MAHUIKA
Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māhaki ki Te Tai Poutini Irihāpeti is the Director of Hauora Māori and Equity. Her team are the advocates and kaimahi within different communities. Irihāpeti’s role is to ensure that Pegasus is prioritising equity and bringing population health to the forefront of their work.
MELODY TULIAU
Ngāti Awa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao, Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tūwharetoa, Ngā Puhi Melody is our Hauora Māori Manager. Her role is to improve Māori health outcomes by ensuring equitable access to health services. A large part of her role includes working in collaboration with Māori to ensure their voices, values and opinions are reflected in the development of the Canterbury health system.
ALEX BEATON
Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha, Ngāi Tahu Alex has been with Pegasus for over four years, working as a Kaimanaaki / Health Navigator in our Here Toitū service. His work supports whānau who have health issues to provide support around helping them to return to work, study and training.
HAUORA MĀORI APPROACHES TO THE COVID-19 RESPONSE Hauora Māori Manager, Melody Tuliau, was seconded to Canterbury’s COVID-19 response team with a focus on Māori-specific approaches. “Māori vaccination rates weren’t great. So, I came into the space and worked with Māori providers to develop a vaccination programme that was going to work for Māori,” Melody said.
“We looked at things like how we manaaki people, how we include them in the service, how we show people that they are valued and important. “It was really important to me to show people that they can have a really good experience in health.”
MĀORI WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Each year Pegasus Health offer a number of Workforce Development Scholarships to Māori students who are studying in the arts. This year we awarded six Māori students with scholarships which included a financial contribution as well as opportunities for mentoring and guidance in their study. After training and working as a carpenter, second-year nursing student, Setu Te Hae, realised that he was on the wrong career path. With a long-held interest in health and wellbeing due to his background in sport, Setu decided to give nursing a go. “It was actually my dad, who works for Kaupapa Māori provider, Purapura Whetu, who asked me if I was interested in health. I decided to give it a go and I’ve been really enjoying it.” Born and raised in Christchurch, Setu’s parents are Samoan and Māori (Waikato-Tainui and Hauraki) and this heavily influences where he wants his career to lead. “I’m most interested in Māori and Pacific health. I’ve got a soft spot for our community. We need to understand the importance of health and the lifestyles that we live. It comes down to breaking the cycle. “It’s also about being a role model and paving the way for young Māori and Pasifika nurses to come through.”
Hineari Kahu (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whakaue) a fifth-year Bachelor of Medicine student from Kaikōura is resolute in her plans to return and work in her community as a doctor. Receiving her Workforce Development Scholarship, she acknowledged the legacy of her tāua (grandmother) Miriama Kahu, who in the 1990s founded the town’s first and only Māori health provider, Te Tai o Marokura Whānau Health and Social Services. “I decided to be a doctor when I was 6 years old, and ever since I have been encouraged, inspired and nurtured by my whānau to fulfil that vision. I will specialise in general practice and rural medicine to return to Kaikōura as the first ever Māori GP. I am proud to add to my taua’s legacy by providing a ‘by Māori for Māori’ service through Te Tai O Marokura. “This scholarship not only brings financial relief, but it further supports that dream,” she says.
KORIMAKO Each year we support a Māori nurse who is entering into primary health care through the NetP programme. This position is jointly funded by Pegasus and the CDHB. Our 2020 Korimako recipient, Hayley Lotter (Muaūpoko) is a recent new graduate, working as a practice nurse at Eastcare Health in Aranui. She graduated as a registered nurse in 2017 and has worked in both mental health nursing and primary health care.
From left: Alice Williams, Setu Te Hae, Iwitea AtariaIvannikova, Hineari Kahu and Kaimana Gallop
Hayley started working with Pegasus Health in 2019 as part of a NetP pilot programme, the Korimako Initiative. This role saw her working in both general practice and for a kaupapa Māori NGO as a mobile community nurse. During her NetP year Hayley was selected to attend the World Health Assembly as a Nursing Now young nurse ambassador, which has opened many doors to new and exciting opportunities.
ABC SMOKING CESSATION PRIORITISATION OF MĀORI Our ABC smoking cessation team have been working with general practices to prioritise their Māori patients in the call backs for smoking cessation with a holistic, wrap around approach. Back here at Pegasus we are doing the call backs for the other, non-Māori patients so that their capacity is freed to be able to focus on their Māori patients. We are having some great results.
A Māori wāhine patient advises: • she was called by a nurse from a Pegasus practice and it was the “best health recall” she has ever experienced. • the nurse asked about a number of things to do with her health, which she appreciated, not just her smoking. • patient felt “no judgement” by nurse when updating that she was still smoking - nurse said something to effect of “when or if you’re ready, we can help - so we’ll just leave it at that.”
that previously it has “put her back up” and she hasn’t wanted to quit because she is “being told to”. However, she is now considering maybe quitting, and if she decides to do this, she wants to go back to the Papanui nurse who spoke to her so nicely, to ask about the options. Patient was so happy with how she was treated with respect, she has been telling her family, etc. The feedback came back to Pegasus Health via an extended family/staff member.
• patient said that in the past she has felt that she is being told what to do, and
This publication has been produced by the Equity Leadership Team at Pegasus Health (Charitable) Ltd. To get in touch, please email Irihapeti.Mahuika@pegasus.org.nz