Kaumātua Research Drives $1.4m Funding Award

 Te Arawa Whānau Ora (TAWO) are part of a research partnership that will receive over $1.4m to help support injury prevention and rehabilitation research for the region’s ageing Māori population. The research is funded by the Health Research Council of NZ, ACC and the Ageing Well National Science Challenge.

The research project, Whaioranga te Pa Harakeke – Iwi-driven Injury Prevention & Recovery for Māori, is supported by a collaborative research group from TAWO, and The University of Auckland, and involves staff from Korowai Aroha Health Centre,
Te Runana o Ngāti Pikiao and Poutiri Wellness Centre. The research aims to develop an injury prevention, rehabilitation and recovery workforce through co-design and community co-creation; and establish the impact of the new workforce in our communities over time. It will also support TAWO to further develop research capabilities.

TAWO Deputy Chairman Eugene Berryman-Kamp says the research will utilise tikanga-based approaches to injury prevention; improve access to ACC and injury care services; and use iwi models of care to improve injury treatment, recovery, and health outcomes for older Māori.

“Māori experience inequitable health outcomes, including disproportionately high rates of injury, so this funding is certainly a much welcome injection to help us further devlop interventions to support some of our community’s most underserved people.

“Iwi-driven and co-designed models of care have the potential to improve inequities which currently exist in injury-related health and wellbeing outcomes for older Māori. In places where iwi and hapū are strong in their wraparound support for older Māori, older Māori have a strong sense of wellbeing,”

“Paeārahi (health navigators) are Māori practitioners deeply rooted in te ao Māori, centre their wellbeing approaches on mātauranga Māori, are acceptable to whānau and communities and have been shown to have a positive impact on cardiovascular and diabetes-related outcomes. We seek to upskill our TAWO paeārahi in injury, recovery and rehabilitation knowledge using a co-designed training package, then develop and test a co-designed paeārahi injury care model” says Mr Berryman-Kamp.

The principal investigator on the project, Joanna Hikaka (Ngāruahine) from the University of Auckland, says the project is important as the research questions being asked are from the community and the intended outcomes are informed by the strategic outcomes sought by the Te Arawa rohe. The research also aims to help ACC to engage better with older Māori, as well as informing kaupapa Māori service development which could be further extended by ACC in the future.

Joanna says “Our project team draw on iwi-driven intervention delivery and solutions, backed by robust research methods. The study is explicitly pro-equity, privileges mātauranga Māori and kaupapa Māori approaches and aims for positive, transformative change”.

About Te Arawa Whānau Ora (TAWO)

TAWO is a collective of Whānau Ora providers in the Te Arawa rohe (region). Each collective member has trained pāeārahi (navigators) who work alongside whānau to achieve their dreams, aspirations and goals through a kaupapa Māori worldview.

TAWO collective members are Aroha Mai Cancer Support Services, Korowai Aroha Health Centre, Maketu Health & Social Services, Te Papa Tākaro o Te Arawa Sports Trust, Te Roopū a Iwi o Te Arawa Charitable Trust, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Pikiao, Te Waiariki Purea Trust and Poutiri Trust.

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