Māori Health
Nau mai, haere mai ki a hauora Māori webpage.
He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.
Positive feelings in your heart will raise your sense of self-worth.
At StaffCare our nurses understand that health care should be holistic and that it is our responsibility to empower our clients to achieve the best possible health outcomes for them and their whānau.
While our core business is Occupational Health, our nurses are dedicated to health promotion within our Māori and Pacific whānau. They are available to work alongside Māori health providers, hapū, iwi and marae to assist with improving the wellbeing of whānau.
We incorporate Te Whare Tapa Whā to help guide us along with our mission goals of manaakitanga, rangitiratanga, kotahitanga and whakawhanaungatanga.
Te Whare Tapa Whā and Occupational Health
Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by leading Māori health advocate and researcher Sir Mason Durie in 1984, to provide a Māori perspective on wellbeing. Te Whare Tapa Whā is a model that describes health as a wharenui/whare tupuna with four walls. These walls represent taha wairua/ spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/ mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Our connection with the whenua/land forms the foundation.
Whenua:
Ko te whenua ko au, ko au ko te whenua. I am the land and the land is me.
Whenua is the place where we stand and our foundation. It is our connection to the land – a source of life, nourishment and wellbeing for everyone. Whenua includes soil, rocks, plants, animals and people – tangata whenua. We are linked physically and spiritually to the land – it is the earth through which we are connected to our tūpuna and all the generations that will come after us.
When we look at how our connection to whenua is linked to our work, we can have a sense of belonging to our mahi however as Māori it is important to have the knowledge of where we come from to ground us as well. Mahi can be transient however whenua is for life.
Psychological Hazard: Work commitments vs tangata whenua e.g. Dome valley dump and challenges of local iwi employed on project.
Taha Hinengaro:
Ki te wātea te hinengaro, me te kaha rere o te wairua, ka tāea ngā mea katoa / When the mind is free and the spirit is willing, anything is possible.
Taha Hinengaro is our mental and emotional wellbeing. When we are strong, we can better cope with the ups and downs of life. We can express our feelings and reach out for support from friends, whānau and hoamahi if we need to. Encouraging leadership in health and safety for Māori kaimahi improves engagement and positively affects the workplace with fewer injuries and improved attendance.
Psychosocial hazards to health: Shiftwork, Dealing with public, Responsibility, Violence, Racism
Taha Wairua:
He oranga ngākau, he hikinga wairua.
When it touches your heart, it lifts your spirit.
Taha Wairua explores your relationship with the environment, people and heritage in the past, present and future. Your spiritual essence is your life force – your mauri. This is who and what you are, where you have come from and where you are going. The way people view wairua can be very different. For some, wairua is the capacity for faith or religious beliefs or having a belief in a higher power. The impact of wairua in a workplace setting can affect a kaimahi’s wellbeing if the environment that they are working in is felt to be unsafe spiritually. An example of this is when Kaimahi feel distress and lose focus because of where they are working i.e. a forest where kehua (ghosts) are seen.
Psychological hazards: Discrimination, Racism, Unsupported workplace
Taha Whānau:
Ehara taku toa i te toa taki tahi, engari he toa taki tini.
My strength is not that of one but that of many.
Taha whānau is about who makes you feel you belong, who you care about and who you share your life with. Whānau is about extended relationships – not just your immediate relatives, it’s your friends, hoamahi, your community and the people who you care about. Everyone has a place and a role to fulfil within their own whānau and whānau contributes to your individual wellbeing and identity. In the workplace it is important for kaimahi to have the support of their whānau to ensure that they are able to come to work with adequate sleep, good focus and their nutritional needs taken care of as an example.
Hazards to health: Long work hours-worklife balance, conflict within organisation and at home impacting focus
Taha Tinana:
Mauri tū, Mauri ora.
An active soul for your wellbeing.
Taha tinana is your physical wellbeing. It is about how your body grows, feels and moves and how you care for it. In occupational health tinana is usually the main focus for monitoring health, preventing workplace injury and illnesses and health promotion actions. However, if the other aspects of a person’s health are not considered it can affect the tinana of a person and their mahi may suffer or place them at risk for injury etc. Long work hours are a barrier to maintaining health and the occupational health nurse can assist the kaimahi with registering at a clinic.
Physical, Chemical, Biological and Ergonomic hazards
