After an initial hui with Gonville Health late in 2024, six whānau members readily took up the challenge to join a newly formed Gonville Health Working Group. These whānau members, who represent four of the whānau taking part in the He Waka Eke Noa study, have since been playing an active role in regular Working Group hui discussion and decision-making. All are keen to see their aspirations for Gonville Health translate into action –sooner rather than later. They bring with them fresh perspectives to share with the wider Working Group, along with a passion for change. Gonville Health staff, for their part, are equally committed to further strengthening all that is good about how and what Gonville Health delivers.
Group members are together designing and putting in place a change model to help make services more accessible for Māori enrolled with Gonville Health. The three point change model the Group has agreed on is built around the findings of the He Waka Eke Noa study. Responsibility for actioning the agreed changes rests with the Gonville Health members of the Group. They report back on progress to the wider group, which includes a representative of the Whanganui Regional Health Network, at their monthly hui. The research team continues to work alongside the Group both to support the process and to evaluate change model outcomes. That has included framing up guidelines with the Group around how its members intend to work together going forward.
At a hui in February 2025, the Working Group came up with some options for naming the programme of activities being developed. Suggestions included drawing on the Gonville Health website whakataukī - Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai ‘nurture the seed and it will blossom’, te puāwaitanga ‘the blossoming’, or te kākano ‘the seedling’. Te korowai aroha ki te tangata, drawing on another whakataukī which speaks to a cloak of love for the people, was also proposed by a whānau member. A final decision on naming will be made at the Group’s next hui in early April 2025.
