Around sixty people attended a ceremony on the misty banks of Lake Ōkareka in Rotorua on Friday 31 July, as Associate Minister of Health Hon. Peeni Henare officially launched new kaupapa Māori services for the region.

Poutama Ora is a new kaupapa Māori primary mental health and addiction service funded under the Ministry’s Access and Choice programme. The service will be available to people with mild to moderate mental health and addiction needs in the Lakes District Health Board area.

Using cultural methodologies such as pūrākau (mythological traditions) and te whare tapa whā (the four cornerstones of Māori health), these new services help people and their whānau to identify, understand and address their mental health and distress.

Aroha Metcalf, Chief Advisor Māori for the Mental Health and Addiction Directorate, said that in the past, a kaupapa Māori approach might have been seen as an ‘add on’ to a more Western style of service.

“But one of the key features of the new kaupapa Māori primary mental health and addiction services is that they are firmly underpinned by a kaupapa Māori model along with mātauranga Māori.”

In the Rotorua District, the service will be known as Manu Tāpiki and will be delivered by Te Arawa Whānau Ora Charitable Trust and Korowai Aroha Charitable Trust.

Manu Tāpiki will involve creating a kaupapa whānau around each tangata whaiora so they are empowered to explore their unique identity, define their truth and discover their purpose. Each person and their whānau will be actively involved in designing and planning their own care journey.

There are specific services available for rangatahi, as well as one-to-one or whānau-based services, but the focus of the event last month was the new Tāne Ora service called ‘Command of the waka’. This ten-week group programme focuses on providing tāne with skills and support to ultimately command and direct the waka of their own physical and mental wellbeing.

“Launching the waka into the lake symbolised the launch of the new kaupapa Māori services in the region – services that truly are for Māori, by Māori,” said Aroha.

To date, we have contracted kaupapa Māori services across nine providers. In the Taupō District, the service will be delivered by Tūwharetoa Health Charitable Trust.