Health Improvement

Health Improvement

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The Health Improvement team builds capacity of communities and organisations to support and enable people and communities to lead healthy, happy and rewarding lives.

The Health Improvement team uses a setting based approach and culturally informed processes to work with key decision makers or leaders of the community. We have determined four key settings in which we deliver targeted services; Healthy Whānau, Healthy Education, Healthy Workplaces and Healthy Local Government.

Our functions

• Creating supportive environments so the healthy choice is the easy choice
• Working with others to influence settings, policies and organisational change to improve health and wellbeing
• Planning, implementing and evaluating health improvement and wellbeing

Our settings

• Healthy Whānau team strives to improve the health and wellbeing of whānau (whānau ora). We acknowledge the need to address health equity for Māori and Pacific communities and understand that culture is a key determinant of health. We work in partnership with Māori and Pacific communities to influence healthy settings that support wellbeing, utilising tools and processes incorporated by Māori and Pacific realities, practices and understandings.
• Healthy Education team focuses on influencing socio-cultural environments and conditions to protect an improve health and wellbeing of tamariki and rangatahi, whanau and communities. We will work in partnership with education leaders and key stakeholders to ensure wellbeing for learning is a shared outcome.
• Healthy Workplaces team focuses on influencing employment and workplace environments and conditions to protect and improve health and wellbeing of employees, whānau and communities. We work in partnership with key industry players across the Waikato and alongside employers who wish to incorporate workplace wellbeing into their organisational culture using the national, award winning WorkWell programme developed by Toi Te Ora Public Health Unit. 
• Healthy Local Government: This setting is the newest and currently in development. We acknowledge the impact local government has on shaping wellbeing of communities –it is significant but also complex. The programme focuses on influencing local government and other sector policy and planning to ensure there is a focus on agreed health and wellbeing goals. This enables central and local government to work together to improve health and wellbeing for local communities. Current work priorities include working with others on growth management.