Healthy Families Waitākere are delighted the ‘community up’ approach of the Healthy Families NZ initiative has been championed as a best practice case study in the Commissioning for Pae Ora Healthy Futures Report from Te Whatu Ora Health NZ.
Over the last two years, Te Whatu Ora (formerly the Ministry of Health) has developed the evidence-based Commissioning for Pae Ora framework, which is grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Commissioning for Pae Ora Healthy Futures provides guidance on how to bring the Whānau Ora vision into the mainstream of health stewardship, systems and services. This will enable whānau to exercise rangatiratanga and strengthen the voice of whānau and communities in designing, delivering and improving health services and other investments.
The case study outlines how Healthy Families NZ presents a new approach to the people of Aotearoa, focussing on shifting and creating systems which support people’s health and wellbeing, rather than focussing downstream on alleviating illnesses caused by preventable chronic diseases.
The strength of local leadership and community holding the answers was also celebrated in the case study. As explained in the following quote.
“We want to strengthen community leaders and to see that they’re not outside of this prevention system. They are at the very heart of it. In fact, their role and influence is more powerful than ours in some situations because they influence people in a way that we can’t.”
– Workforce member
Read the case study here.
