National Hauora Coalition colleagues, Dr Rachel Brown (Tumu Whakarae, National Health Coalition) and Donna Kielar (Director of Nursing, National Hauora Coalition) joined us in Whanganui recently where we welcomed Donna as a newly appointed member of our He Waka Eke Noa Research Advisory Group. Reconnecting with Rachel kanohi ki te kanohi was especially significant for us given our relationship with her, as a former Whakauae Research team member, and the opportunities that presents for enhancing our Māori health research and primary health care interface in practical ways.
In addition to familiarising Donna and Rachel with He Waka Eke Noa, we discussed opportunities for further growing the relationship between applied research and primary health care in the Te Ranga Tupua rohe. He Waka Eke Noa are already partnered with HARC, an equity focused primary care research team based in Whanganui, to ensure results can be translated to action and changes at a provider level. The opportunity to further enhance research and primary health care relationships was embraced by the National Hauora Coalition.
Using He Waka Eke Noa as an example, the research team outlined our plans to share high-level findings, from the Discovery and Dream Phases of our Kaupapa Māori Appreciative Inquiry (KMAI) qualitative study, with Māori primary health care service providers from around the Te Ranga Tupua rohe. Hui are being convened during September 2024 with practice and policy-level kaimahi representatives of the respective providers. The practice level hui will share findings, explore their resonance with providers, and identify what is already in place to enhance the accessibility of primary health care for Māori health service users. We will then meet with key policy level representatives of Te Ranga Tupua to explore aspirations for primary care in the region and the role research can play in achieving these aspirations.
The opportunity to further build on these 2024 dissemination hui was identified both by the National Hauora Coalition and the He Waka Eke Noa research team. To that end, a wider hui within the rohe was proposed to present current primary health care related research across provider and research entities. The hui, to be convened in 2025, would include identifying opportunities for future research collaboration across Māori primary health care providers and research entities. In addition to Whakauae Research, there are other entities with a Māori health research focus in the rohe, including Te Atawhai o Te Ao, Ngā Waiariki Ngāti Apa and Te Oranganui Trust. The National Hauora Coalition, for its part, has a strong primary health care research focus as well as primary health care service interests in the rohe. The Coalition’s Kaupapa Māori research unit sees research as a pathway to achieving equity in health and will support the collaborative work the proposed hui seeks to promote. We are excited to see what collaborations and action come out of the hui in 2025.
