RCPHO warmly welcomes Cr Dan Gordon to the Board. Dan brings valuable experience as the Waimakariri District Council’s appointment to the Board.

Dan is an elected Councillor and holds a number of positions including a member and Trustee of North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust, Rangiora Community Board, Rangiora Promotions Management Board, Kaiapoi Art Expo, Rangiora Winter Festival, West Eyreton Rural Water Supply Advisory Group, Friends of Rangiora Town Hall and is President of the Rotary Club of Rangiora.

Dan says he is very honoured to have been asked to join the Board and is looking forward getting to know more about RCPHO and making a contribution to the Board.

It is with pleasure Rural Canterbury PHO announces the appointment of School Nurses for the Hurunui College and the Amuri Area School.

Rhona (on the left) will be working at Amuri and Robyn (pictured with Principal Stephen Beck) will be working at the Hurunui College in Hawarden.

RCPHO is both excited and honoured to be supporting these great schools. Rhona and Robyn will be a wonderful resource for both the students and the schools. The School Nurses will work closely with the local General Practice Teams.

Rural Canterbury PHO is pleased to report that a team, including the District Health Board’s neonatologist Bronwyn Dixon, dentist Juliet Gray, staff from Christchurch Women’s Hospital, and the Rural Canterbury PHO Lactation Consultants, has been recognised for work on updating the Tongue Tie process for mothers and their babies. The team received a runner up award at the Canterbury Health System Quality Improvement and Innovation Awards. Their work also included the development and introduction of a new health pathway.

The team was runner up in the Category: Improved Health and Equity for All Populations.

Give them a thumbs up on our Facebook page.

12.30 pm
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
at Rangiora Town Hall
(Lunch provided from 12.00pm-12.30pm)

Agenda

• To receive and adopt the Chair’s Report, Financial Statements and Auditors Report for the year ended 30 June 2017.
• Any other matters of general business brought before the Annual Meeting.

Copies of the financial statements and auditor’s report will be available for inspection at the Rural Canterbury PHO office, 567 Wairakei Road, Christchurch, from 2 October 2017.

Story and photos thanks to the Canterbury Clinical Network

RCPHO recently welcomed Whanau Ora Navigators

Kylie-Jane Phillips (Ngāi Tahu whanui, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Kahungungu) and Jennie Apirana (Ngāi Tuhoe, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Ruanui) are the newest members of the 50+ team of Whānau Ora navigators around Te Wai Pounamu.

Kylie-Jane, who was born and raised in a rural community, previously worked in suicide prevention coordination for a non-government organisation (NGO). She said: “This collaboration with general practice will help us connect with whānau in rural communities, as I know from my previous roles that this can be difficult. I’m really looking forward to working with whānau and finding out what is important to them.”

Jennie worked for several years with Canterbury DHB’s Māori team at the Diabetes Centre. She said: “This is the appropriate service for our families, especially when we’re creating a focus on being Māori, and approaching outcomes in an interconnected way.”

Whānau ora is a national whānau-centred initiative that brings opportunities to empower whānau as a whole, rather than focusing separately on individual whānau members. Navigators work with whānau in reaching toward seven pou or outcomes:

Becoming self-managing;
Living healthy lifestyles;
Participating fully in society;
Confidently participating in Te Ao Māori
Economically secure and successfully involved in wealth creation;
Cohesive, resilient and nurturing; and
Responsible stewards to their living and natural environment.
Wellness for Māori historically included these pou and whānau ora therefore is intent on helping whānau restore these capabilities in the lives of their and other whanau.

Moana-o-Hinerangi, Māori Health Manager for Rural Canterbury PHO says that “whānau ora is not a new thing – but restoring it in this 21st century is a powerful vehicle for whānau to aspire to reaching their own determined levels of wellness … and is the newer challenge about it.”

“That Kaiārahi are being employed in-house with a Primary Health Organisation – a mainstream organisation – is a new thing too, so testing this out is important. As far as we understand it’s not happened since Te Pūtahitanga began operating in 2014 as the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.

“We have a population of approximately 5,000 Māori whānau members who are registered with RCPHO’s general practices. The Te Pūtahitanga mission is to invest in and support thriving whānau and direct investment in rural whanau was an area that Te Pūtahitanga was drawn to.

The pilot aim is two-fold: to bring Whānau Ora to individual whānau, and to support whānau to socialise and cross-fertilise Whānau Ora in rural communities.

Rural Canterbury PHO CEO, Bill Eschenbach, says that “rural general practices play an important role in ensuring that whānau are identified and targeted and the link between them and navigators is established so initially Kaiārahi will work with registered patients, but the long-term goal is for communities of rural whānau to take up Whānau Ora.”

“The challenge for RCPHO would be how best to ensure that the Whānau Ora kaupapa remained whānau led and that the resource was directed toward whanau achieving their wellness aspirations. This two-year pilot is to trial this and see what can be learnt from it” says Moana-o-Hinerangi.

Moana-o-Hinerangi believes that “our two navigators are complementary in many ways because of iwi affiliations, professional backgrounds, age and life experience mixes, personal attributes and responses noticed from different whānau age groups.”

“With whānau approval, we look forward to usefully walking the whānau ora journey with them.”

Rural Canterbury PHO warmly welcomes Alex Sun to the PHO as IT and Helpdesk Technician.

Alex’s role is to provide IT/ Network/Medtech support for staff and practices while supporting the IT Manager in handling database management and reporting. He’s hoping to pass a Medtech Certified Engineers Course soon and says he’s happy to help with any technological issues.

Get to know a little bit about this newest member to the Rural Canterbury PHO team:

Tell us about your background?
I have a Postgraduate Degree in Computer and Information Sciences (2014) from Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Also, I have a Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology (2011) from Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, China. I also hold a qualification in CCNA Routing and Switching.

My past work history includes roles in Customer Service and IT Support at Whale Watch Kaikoura, C# Developer in Snapinspect International, IT Support analyst at Sunshine Hotel, and Network Support Engineer at Shanghai You Chi Ltd.

Tell us about yourself?
Originally, I am from China, Shanghai. I have stayed in New Zealand for 4 years.
I studied and worked in Auckland for 2.5 years and at Kaikoura for 1.5 years, however I am new to Christchurch. My partner is working for Whale Watch Kaikoura as a Marketing Manager.

What do you do in your spare time?
I like to watch movies, enjoy food with friends, playing soccer, cooking, playing video games and fishing in my spare time.

Alex can be contacted by emailing alex.sun@rcpho.org.nz.