MidCentral DHB wins award

MidCentral District Health Board last night won the Positive Inclusion award at the 2018 Diversity Awards.

The award was in recognition of the MDHB’s work with staff within the organisation over the past five years.

A MDHB employee visited the emergency department at the Palmerston North Hospital five years ago for medical care.

He was asked if he was “homosexual”, and did he and his partner like their relationship?

It upset the man. But a more recent experience was very different.

“They treated me just like everyone else. I felt normal and it was great.”

He said the staff were positively inclusive and engaged respectfully and appropriately with his husband.

The MDHB commented

that it had worked hard to make sure the man’s experience was a thing of the past. The change has come through the MDHB Rainbow Forum which was established in 2016, with the aim of making MDHB Rainbow-inclusive.

Through the forum MDHB has increased how staff work with patients and wha¯ nau to create a safe and inclusive workplace for staff who identify as part of the rainbow community.

It has also brought together LGBTQIA people and allies to form a network to drive inclusivity and link with community groups. These initiatives have been included in the DHB’s organisational development plan. One of the most successful has been a training programme on gender and sexual diversity which is delivered to staff several times a year, recently to a group of trainee doctors.