Marae and tribally based health care gets the nod

Tu Tangata, Issue 18, 1 June 1984, Page 18

Marae and tribally based health care gets the nod

Marae and tribally based health initiatives run by maori people emerged as one of the major recommendations of the maori health conference held at Hoani Waititi marae in Auckland recently.

The Hui Whakaoranga was organised by the Health Department which has named maori health as a top priority for 1984/85. But the department stressed that it wanted to hear maori people giving their perspective on existing health services and what changes they felt were needed. Maori leaders and medical experts from all over the country attended the conference which was opened by the Minister of Health, Aussie Malcolm, and the Minister of Maori Affairs, Ben Couch. Major recommendations were divided into the four categories which make up the holistic maori view of health physical, spiritual, mental and family well-being. They included: Te Taha Wairua: to have the primacy of Te Taha

Wairua recognised by institutions throughout New Zealand to support and give special status to the tohunga and traditional herbal remedies and facilitate use of them in health services to encourage the employment of “minita maori” in all major hospitals and institutions to ensure that employment policies in institutions reflect spiritual qualities of maori people. Te Taha Hinengaro: health and educational institutions recognise maori culture as a positive resource and Te Taha Hinengaro as an essential part of it establish and support marae-based community-initiated projects to meet needs defined by local people rectify imbalance of maori staff in health service agencies look at including maori spirituality in

school health education help health workers to improve cross cultural understanding by ongoing seminars, workshops, incorporation of maori studies and language in training curricula. Te Taha Tinana: The Department of Health should: compile a register and guidelines of community health initiatives for use by other maori groups; fund health coordinators to marae based projects to help train volunteers; support further regional and tribal health hui; recognise a return to traditional maori methods of treating disease priority be given to important diseases amenable to modern medical treatment like diabetes, kidney heart and chest disease, hepatitis, ear disease

access to use of modern health care service by maori people be improved health knowledge of maori patients be improved by using simple non-jargon language and improving cross cultural communication skills information on things like smoking, alcohol, drugs, be presented using appropriate cultural, audiovisual facilities. Te Taha Whanau support matua whangai and set up whanau resource groups in communities where maori people do not have links with a marae establish formal links between maori communities and health service organisations to identify local health issues and implement programmes

support more maori people standing for hospital boards and other executive positions. Other recommendations were: that Department of Statistics and health service agencies record the ethnic/cultural group and tribal affiliations in future data collection systems to help with maori research a “maori wellness” measure be developed covering such things as weekly hours of exercise, number of contacts with a marae, hours in spiritual, whanau, cultural and language activities.

The Maori Health Committee, headed by the director of the department’s priority programme, Dr Pat Ngata, has asked all who attended the conference to evaluate the experience and the recommendations. They will then be drafted into a report giving priorities and guidelines for action. Other developments of the hui included: Hospitals may soon ask maori patients to state their iwi and hapu on their admission forms. The DirectorGeneral of Health, Dr Ron Barker said he would support such a move if maori people wanted it.