Waipareira's Whānau Centre has been supporting whānau who reside predominantly throughout West Auckland for almost 10 years, serving as a one-stop Whānau Ora hub that integrates health, social, justice and education services.
Waipareira CEO John Tamihere says whānau enrolled with the Whānau Centre have historically been under-valued, under-serviced and forced into the margins of society by "mainstream" providers and the usual government agencies.
A recent report on the health needs of West Auckland has revealed that Whānau Centre is delivering services to a young, high-needs population who are frequent users of hospital emergency departments and mental health services.
The Health Needs Assessment (HNA) for the Whānau Centre profiled more than 8000 whānau and their health needs, while they were enrolled at Whānau Centre from July 2014 to December 2015.
Commissioned as part of the Ngā Pou o Te Whare o Waipareira Collective Impact Initiative, the report represents a key outcome of the collaboration between Waipareira, the Nirvana Health Group, and Waitematā District Health Board.
Dr John Huakau, Senior Epidemiologist for Wai Research says, "The report shows that appropriate services for our West Auckland youth are a huge priority.
"The report also highlights that there is a major requirement for better preventative services for youth and adults with a particular focus on appropriate Kaupapa Māori mental health services."
Key points of the report are:
- The age-standardised emergency department attendance rate for whānau was 50,700 per 100,000 - over two-and-a-half times the attendance rate for Waitematā District Health Board as a whole.
- The majority (52%) of whānau were Māori and most (55%) were aged under 25, with particularly large numbers of 10 to 19-year-olds.
- Almost 80% of whānau accessed only a single Whānau Centre service. Around 20% used more than one service, of which approximately 10% used three or more services.
- Whānau use of mental health services was almost six times higher compared with Waitematā District Health Board for the youth (0-19 years) and adults (20-64 years), and over three times higher for older adults (aged 65 years and above)
The HNA found the Whānau Centre model offers a Whānau Ora approach, and the co-benefit of on-site internal and external referrals to a range of health, social and other services.
The report also identified important opportunities to improve the recording of key health status measures, to link clients to additional services from which they could benefit, and to improve enrolment and the uptake of preventative services.