Tū Ora Compass Health New Zealand

We hope everyone has learned more about Diabetes this Awareness Month. We are gratful for our Diabetes Community Co-ordinator Ruana Taito, who is helping to provide our communities with great information and resources. Ruana works alongside GP’s and Diabetes Specialist in Tū Ora practices to supports Pacific whānau self-manage their diabetes. With shared culture and language Ruana connects with patients to better manage the social issues effecting patient's management of diabetes. Part of this work is delivering the Your Life Your Journey, Diabetes Self-Management Education Course that Ruana helps present around Porirua. Providing a translation from Diabetes Specialists and Nutritionists, into Samoan, enabling Samoan communities to self-manage better. “Culture and Language is really important to our people. It breaks down barriers, and that’s where a lot of things come up” Thank you for your engagement this month and keep up the learning!

Davide is on the move again, and this time he's in Martinborough Health Centre! Photographed with Nurse Practitioner Cara, Davide is kicking off the kōrero about Bowel Screening in Martinborough. Bowel Screening is free for anyone aged 60-74. The test comes in the mail and can be done in the comfort of your own home. The test checks for polyps in the bowel that have the potential to become cancerous. Identifying them early makes them more treatable. If you're enrolled with a GP, have a kōrero with your team about the test, or head to https://loom.ly/2w9Yvs4 to find out more!

Rheumatic Fever is a preventable disease, contracted following an infection of Group A Strep. For some the infection can move into the body and affect the heart, becoming Rheumatic Heart Disease. As a Rheumatic Fever Nurse, Tamara works to identify and treat patients with Strep Infections before it moves to Rheumatic Fever. While there is no cure for Rheumatic Fever, to help prevent it from reoccurring and causing heart damage, Penicillin injections are given. This is delivered through the Mobile Nurse Service which takes pressure off patients, as the nurse can meet patients at times and locations that suits them. This is especially helpful for the young people that are affected by Rheumatic Fever and need repeated injections. Part of the role as a Mobile Nurse, Tamara is helping to support families manage this long-term health condition through education. Promoting early testing and swabbing of sore throats and reoccurring skin infections, especially for rangatahi Māori and Pacific. Anyone over 16 with a diagnosis of Rheumatic Fever or Rheumatic Heart Disease, who requires ongoing Penicillin and lives in the Wellington to Kāpiti Region is eligible for the mobile nurse service. For more information about the service or for a referral form please email tamara.albert@tuora.org.nz. Thank you Tamara for supporting young people in our community!

The What About You? - Wairarapa programme has run over the past few years, which has helped to connect members of the community with support for mental health, alcohol and addictions support. The programme aimed to address social pressures and norms surrounding alcohol usage and support people feeling an impact on their wellbeing. Helping to shift their mindset and connecting them to local free services. One of the biggest supporters of the programme has been Wairarapa Bush Rugby Union, who have partnered with the team since 2018 and have advocated the support to players and supporters alike. They have seen a shift in mindset of the team, promoting key messages such as 'are you okay?' and 'it's okay to reach out for help'. The team even have the programme printed onto shirts and equipment. Promoting the posters and messaging at every given opportunity. Recently the team got to sit down with Wairarapa Bush and talk through the impact the programme has had. Check out the video below to hear more!

Ngā Kete Mātauranga - Addictions Training Day On the 7th of November Tu Ora held an Addictions Training Day lead by Health Improvement Practitioner Apoorva R. for HIPs, Health Coaches and Mental Health Practitioners. The day was comprised of guest speakers providing the day with a broad range of perspectives on addiction. From individuals with lived experiences, as well as clinical information and further recourses for referrals. All of which helped our staff to feel more confident and knowledgeable when supporting patients with addictions. Listening to stories from those with lived experience had great value. Learning more of the thinking and mindset behind addiction, how it can grow and continue, but also what helped to change their behaviours was impactful for our team. We have many recourses available in our mental health team. The Addictions Training Day was also to connect staff together by sharing specific skills and knowledge regarding managing addiction. Our team acknowledged that addiction is an experience many face, and that through Primary Care there’s opportunities to resolve and reduce issues caused by addiction. We hope to empower others to take the first steps to reduce intake and meet their personal health goals. Thank you Apoorva for leading this training day.

Winter Wellness Initiatives Works to Keep Communities Well over Winter 👩⚕️👨⚕️ A second year of funded winter wellness checks sees many patients receive additional support to help keep them well over winter. As part of the Primary Options for Acute Care (POAC) programme, the winter wellness initiatives focus on enrolled patients in practices who are at high risk of health deterioration, have a respiratory condition and are either high users of secondary care or are high risk of being hospitalised over winter due to long term or chronic conditions. A total of 1,054 consults were completed, with 82% being aged 60 – 90 years old, and 26% with Māori or Pacific patients, peaking in June with 345 consults, Waikanae Health had the most consults at 96, with Paraparaumu and Newtown Union not far behind with 71 and 60 consults respectively. Of the patients involved in the Winter Wellness initiative, we predicted that 26% would need to attend ED. Our data shows however that only 22% presented, showing a 4% absolute difference and a 15% relative difference in attendance. Programme Manager Amelia Walsh said the wellness initiatives were very popular and successful in supporting the communities throughout winter. “During the winter months, we see a rise in emergency department visits, often due to respiratory or chronic conditions that could have been avoided with early management and support. This funding enables our practices to take a proactive approach with patients, educating them about their conditions and medications, and helping them develop a plan to maintain their health throughout the winter,” she said. Mabli Jones, Deputy Chief Executive and General Manager for Primary Care Development, Sustainability and Innovation said primary care initiatives like this are helping keep people out of ED and support the hospital system. “Funding initiatives like this in primary care keeps people well for longer, and reduces their need to access secondary care, often when they are much more unwell and require longer, more extensive and expensive care” she said. “Initiatives like this are only one-off funds. We first ran the programme in 2023 and were lucky enough to secure further funding for 2024. We know initiatives like this work to help our communities and our practices and we will continue to advocate for ongoing funding for many proactive preventative health programmes, including the Winter Wellness initiative”. Read more on our website at https://loom.ly/3_-Rf9A General Practice New Zealand

Another year and another Corporate Challenge, and this year was the biggest yet for Tū Ora! Our teams from across the rohe came together on Wednesday night to run, jog, walk and chat 5km around the course on Wellington Waterfront. We had 79 participants, taking out the largest organisation participating in the event this year. Alongside this award, the team also took 1st place in the Government and Health category, and our wāhine took out 3rd place overall for female participants - awesome mahi! Thank you to those who organised and participated in the event, we're already looking forward to training for next year!

This afternoon was our annual Board Strategic Session, an opportunity to bring together the Tū Ora Board, leadership team, our sub-committees and partner organisations to share ideas, kōrero and strategically plan out the Tū Ora direction for the next 12 months. The session also covered a session on AI and Automation, with a guest activity with Spark Health who brought some VR devices for our teams to experience. One featured a holistic and wellness program, and the other a health specific program. Thank you to Spark Health for their VR programs and thank you to PB Tech for supplying one of the VR headsets for us to test!

Health Improvement Practitioner (or HIP), are a valuable role in primary health, supporting practices with their range of skills, knowledge and experience. The different backgrounds that HIPs bring to practice help to support a broad demographic of patients, like the range of Newtown Medical Centre. Mandy Lewis was a Social Worker prior to becoming a HIP. With that she brings a values-based lens to the practice, helping patients to better their health through identifying what’s important to them, and changing behaviours to meet their own goals. The HIP role is a holistic approach to health that considers the lifestyle of patients and their values to support them best in their individual health journey’s. Providing another aspect of care to accompany the clinical side and broaden patient outcomes in primary care. Thank you, Mandy for your mahi!

Raumati Road Surgery on the Kāpiti Coast leads as a great example of a practice pooling the skills of their GPs. Expanding and maintaining the range of services they offer in the now semi-rural area, and while key skills are being lost as the workforce decreases. Kāpiti has now been reclassified as semi-rural due to the regions distance from a major hospital. GP Kirsty Lennon takes this as an incentive to keep skills, services as well community initiatives within the region, as to take pressure of patients travelling and secondary care. Like other practices in the region, there has been a decrease in the number of GP’s and a loss of key skills. But by managing individual GP’s background experience and personal interest, Raumati Road is maintaining their range of services and more specific services too. Resolving speciality cases in the region through primary care. This is helped by Raumati Road Surgery being a teaching practice too, like other practices they can upskill and train existing and emerging general practitioners to keep these skills and services available on the coast. Although continuity of care is important to GP’s, to help in their current position, GP’s at Raumati are happy to offer their opinion and consultation to their colleagues in specific cases that are areas of interest and expertise. This all helps to keep the Kāpiti community supported locally. We are proud of the methods being used by Raumati Road to mitigate the current pressures and manage reduced resources. Thank you for your efforts to keep care accessible within the Kāpiti Coast.