And that’s a view shared by Theresa Olsen, the general manager at Kōkiri Marae in Seaview, Lower Hutt, where she leads a large team of social, health and whānau ora workers. Olsen is also respected in the community and was last year’s Kiwibank Wellingtonian of the Year.
“Our service will lose 17 whānau ora navigators and because of that we are really worried that we will not be able to keep up with demands,” Olsen said.
Morgan said she has been fielding calls from many nurses working in primary health care throughout the country, concerned about many things but especially the impact of losing hundreds of whānau ora navigators who they have been working closely with for more than a decade.
“Many of our nurses work closely with whānau ora navigators who play a vital role in advocating for and guiding so many whānau with serious health and socio-economic issues,” Morgan said.
‘This latest chop, will mean much more work for our nurses who are already nearing burn out point.’
“Nurses and navigators have worked successfully together, including, during the Covid response.
“Having the whānau ora navigators allows our nurses in the community to focus on the clinical.”
“This is yet another attack on the voice and mahi of Māori. And as a collective we all need to stand together and stop this Government from bringing down the strength of the health and wellbeing of all,” Morgan said.
The decision announced by the Government last week, will see more than 500 whānau ora navigators throughout the country lose their jobs. Four new commissioning agencies will replace the previous three agencies.
Olsen said Kokiri helps about 200 of Lower Hutt’s most vulnerable whānau.
“Whether it is education, health, poverty these whānau have extremely high needs. And they don’t trust easily either, so any new provider is going to have their work cut out for them.”
‘Oranga Tamariki is broken yet they have chosen to dismantle us [Māori organisations] and not them.’
Olsen said a lot of whānau and staff were starting to lose hope which started with the Government cutting Te Aka Whaiora, then cutting legislation to eliminate tobacco – one of the biggest preventable killers of Māori people.
“I don’t have any message for the new commissioning agency, just the Government – why would you break something that’s not broken?”
The staff at Kōkiri have already been given verbal notice.
“We can’t even tell them whether or not the new agency will contract us. It may decide to go with another provider. So yes, we are all very unsettled at the moment.”
The new commissioning agency for Wellington region will be Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Toa which is expected to take over the role from the previous agency Te Pou Matakana on July 1.
