Health in rural areas in focus
RURAL WOMEN: Event to outline challenges in ensuring wellbeing of rural communities
Different issues may influence the wellbeing of rural communities compared with urban ones, and organisations in New Zealand are being encouraged to recognise these.
Tomorrow, the local Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is bringing together a group of professionals to talk about the challenges of working to keep residents in rural regions healthy and safe.
The Behind the Hedges — Issues impacting the wellbeing of rural communities event will include the role of the Family Harm Intervention Police Team; changes in the Bay Of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) system; how RWNZ are influencing the wellbeing of rural communities; and the aim of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).
The RHIP, which commenced in 2012, aims to improve the recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural areas by providing immersion in a rural location. The programme has the added benefit of allowing the 13 different health disciplines to understand what happens in all the other health areas, facilitating a more holistic approach to patient care.
The students come from courses as diverse as speech language therapy to nutrition and dietetics as well as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, midwifery, paramedicine, oral health and optometry.
Academic co-ordinator Yvonne Boyes will be at the RWNZ community event to enlighten attendees on how the RHIP works.
The RHIP is jointly run by the BOPDHB and University of Auckland. Funding is provided by Health Workforce New Zealand, and the students from eight different education providers.
Trish Bennett and Arana Pearson, from the Mental Health Department of the BOPDHB, will discuss changes in the health system including ‘lived experience’. The new initiative involves the consultation of people living with diseases such as mental illness when making changes in the health system.
RHIP students also learn the roles of other organisations involved in the wellbeing of rural communities and how working together can provide better results for everyone. One such organisation is the New Zealand Police, and a Family Harm Intervention Team member will be talking about what happens behind the hedges in rural areas and what we can all do about it.
The event, which is open to all, will take place from 1.30-4pm, with a Q&A session following afternoon tea at 3pm, at the Titoki Healing Centre 71 Titoki Rd. ■