HealthRight is a suite of free services for patients enrolled with Turanganui PHO's general practices and Maori health organisation.
Lifetime Lifestyle
Primary Mental Health
Medicine Management Service
Toi Ora: Better Breathing and Heart Recovery programmes
Social Work
Juken New Zealand
Lifetime Lifestyle
Patients have been offered the groundbreaking risk assessment and chronic care management programme HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle since March 2008.
The aim is to reduce the incidence and impact of chronic health conditions particularly for Maori. Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are primarily targeted.
Patients aged 35 are invited into their general practice for a free warrant of fitness from a practice nurse, and then if necessary will receive a free consultation with their GP. If appropriate the patient can be referred to another health professional including the HealthRight Lifestyle Coordinator and/or the Social Worker. A tailored care plan is developed for each patient. For information on patient figures click here
Primary Mental Health
This district's Primary Mental Health service started in December 2007. The bottom up approach is designed to offer assessment, treatment and support to people presenting to general practitioners with mild to moderate mental health conditions.
Patients qualifying for help are able to have a free extended consultation with a GP, and may then be referred to Turanganui PHO's Primary Mental Health Clinical Liaison.For information on patient figures click here.
Turanganui PHO's Primary Mental Health service has also been profiled at Primary Mental Health, an information portal created by the Ministry of Health and Te Pou.
Medicine Management Service
This service is a consultation-based review of a patient’s medicine-taking behaviour and involves regular interaction between the patient and their pharmacist.
It usually involves a home visit with the aim to help the patient find out more about the medicines they are taking, and identify any problems they may be having with their medicines including over the counter (OTC) products, and lifestyle issues.
Referrals to the service can be made by general practitioners, practice nurses, pharmacists, patients or their whanau, district nurses and other health providers.
Referrers will receive an up-to-date list of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines and therapies the patient is taking. A report detailing issues, actions and outcomes of the review will be sent to the patient’s GP.
Toi Ora: Better Breathing and Heart Recovery programmes
The Better Breathing and Heart Recovery programmes are community-based and emphasize goal setting and wellness, education and exercise.
Heart Recovery patients who have had heart surgery, angina, heart interventions and valve surgery, are initially referred to a nurse-led clinic at Gisborne Hospital with the Clinical Nurse Specialist.
Patients are assessed and then where appropriate referred to Turanganui PHO’s Toi Ora Programme Coordinator who can see them at home, their workplace, or the Turanganui PHO office in Peel St. After a Flinders Assessment patients are managed with input from Sport Gisborne and Turanga Health. The Heart Recovery Programme consists of eight-week sessions for groups of six to eight people.
Referrals for the Better Breathing programme are made to the Clinical Nurse Specialist – Respiratory, at Gisborne Hospital. The programme consists of an eight week course for six to eight people each time. It is run four times a year and started in February 2009.
During the course patients will meet the Toi Ora Programme Coordinator who will encourage and support people to lead a healthier lifestyle, provide relevant health information, and help people access the right local health services (Community based, primary or secondary care).
The Toi Ora Programme Coordinator will:
Coordinate access to resources that will support the self-management of individuals at risk of long-term conditions and those individuals that are high risk individual with diagnosed diabetes and CVD.
Monitor the progress of those identified individuals in achieving their goals.
Assess potential barriers to individuals making healthy lifestyle choices and have the knowledge of, and access to, appropriate resources that will resolve these barriers.
For more information on patient figures click here.
Social Work
Turanganui PHO’s Social Worker Tina Holmes brings a holistic approach to care by focusing on patient’s social and medical issues. Medical issues are often only part of a person’s wider problems. For example, a lack of home heating, problems with mounting bills and even loneliness can also exacerbate problems so they all need to be addressed to achieve the best outcome for the client. The social worker can connect people who need support with agencies who offer that support.
A social work assessment can be done even if a patient did not present with a specific problem. Often a comprehensive “check-list” completed by Tina during a home visit highlights areas of concern that can be later addressed. The “check-lists” covers topics like home heating, benefit management and medication management.
Tina is able to offer constructive advice about how to handle a situation and support the person to get the help required. Follow-up visits ensure all is well and give a person the confidence to ask for help.
Referrals for social work assistance come from general practitioners as well as Turanga Health hauora nurses and other health professionals who visit people in their homes. For more information on patient figures click here.
Juken New Zealand
A fit and healthy workforce at Gisborne timber mill Juken New Zealand (JNL) is vital to the success of its operation, and personally it provides huge benefits to staff and their families.
Turanganui Primary Health Organisation Nurse Practitioner Diane Williams has managed a workplace primary care programme at JNL since February 2004.
Diane runs a clinic at JNL twice a week, and once a year staff get a full 40-minute check up during working hours. Mill staff can access phlebotomy services and prescriptions, and there is also a drop-in service.
The service started because traditionally, this group of employees finds it difficult to access mainstream GP care. As is normal in this sector, the mill runs a variety of rotating shift patterns and staff turnover in some roles is high.
Diane is able to combine her role at Turanganui PHO and JNL by working with all Tairawhiti GP practices, referring patients to the Turanganui PHO social worker, the HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle and HealthRight Primary Mental Health programmes, as well as a variety of other health providers throughout the region.
For more information on patient figures click here.
Page last updated on 24 March 2010