ProCare Mobile Health On The Move – Ara Hauora Ready To Address Unmet Health Needs

ProCare is excited to announce it has launched a new mobile health service, called Ara Hauora – Your health, your way, together, to help address unmet health needs for whānau across Tāmaki Makaurau and to improve health outcomes.

Ara Hauora is a family centred initiative, where a team of Nurses and Health Coaches take mobile van services home to whānau who will benefit most through outreach. Support will include a wide range of services rather than being limited by time and/or a specific health issue.

This service is designed to work in partnership with ProCare’s general practices to identify and reduce barriers for whānau accessing their regular health and wellbeing services. The team will work with the whānau to address these barriers, and guide them back to their general practice.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at ProCare says: “We’re excited to launch Ara Hauora and reach whānau that need support.

“The benefit of the Ara Hauora mobile service is that it can support a whānau centred model of care, as it will be able to work with each member of the household on a range of services and unmet needs. For example, this could be child immunisation, or health education on managing a chronic condition that led to hospital admission. It could be navigating other social needs such as housing, or it could be support for an adult who might have multiple health conditions to be aware of what help they may be entitled to,” continues Norwell.

Mihi Blair, Kaiwhakahaere Māori says: “It is well documented that there are significant inequities in access, quality of service and outcomes in New Zealand’s healthcare system. Across Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika people and those in low socioeconomic groups are still the most disadvantaged from a health perspective. Our mobile health service is about acting now to reduce health inequities – particularly in light of Covid - and is about honouring our commitment to Te Tiriti.”

Viv Pole, Senior Advisor for Pacific Health at ProCare, says: “We needed a new model of care that is more responsive to the needs of our Māori and Pacific population to help them stay connected to the health system. We have met four general practices who are excited for this support and ready to work with the Ara Hauora team - Mangere Health Centre, Swanson Medical Centre, Doctors Middlemore and Bakerfield Medical & Urgent Care Clinic. We know we will have many more practices across our network who will be interested in working with us in due course.”

The Ara Hauora team will work closely with general practices to identify whānau suitable for a home visit, offer a range of assistance and check-ups and start the kōrero of how their general practice can support them.

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