Organisational pre-requisites to fund implement and sustain a Māori health promotion model in a primary care setting.

About this research

Health promotion was traditionally delivered within a public health setting in New Zealand. With changes to primary care delivery, health promotion is increasingly delivered within the primary care setting due to national strategy changes aimed at improving health outcomes. Rather than dealing primarily with the individual in a treatment and support role, primary care is now also tasked with providing preventative and health promotion activities. This research focussed on what organisational pre-requisites are necessary for implementing and funding a Māori health promotion framework in a primary care setting.

These requirements are:
• Cultural context
• Importance of cultural identity
• Community context and collectivity
• Active community participation and partnerships
• Wider family/whānau involvement
• Broad holistic nature of indigenous concepts of health
• Importance of community/iwi networks
• Access to resources

The framework ‘Kia Uruuru Mai a Hauora’ (Ratima 2001) addresses these themes and sets out a structure for the co-ordination of Māori health promotion activities. Waiora Healthcare Primary Health Organisation (PHO) was selected as the setting to explore how to implement the framework because it has both mainstream and Māori services and straddles a wide population group. A number of interviews and two focus groups were carried out. Given the nature of the population that Waiora Healthcare PHO serves, the framework fitted well into existing health promotion activities co-ordinated and run by the PHO and the philosophy and values of the practice. The findings from this research helped implement a Māori health promotion framework within a primary care setting.

Acknowledge Associate Professor Mihi Ratima and Dr Heather Gifford for their foundational research and contribution to the project respectively.