Mental wellbeing topics and video series a boost for Aucklanders

COVID-19 is still with us and the ongoing impact is still stressful for many whānau. Some people have lost jobs, homes, lives, loved ones and hope.

Health Navigator Charitable Trust (HNCT) and Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand have partnered to create 15 new wellbeing website pages, four personal stories and 19 videos that focus on the broader psychosocial aspects of COVID and is designed to help whānau cope with COVID-19 and the potential aftermath of long COVID. For example: Why does this feel so hard?

The resources add to an already large volume of Health Navigator-produced mental health and wellbeing topics and went live on the Health Navigator NZ website during Mental Health Awareness Week. They can be accessed from these two landing pages.

Emotional support for getting through the pandemic

Practical support for getting through the pandemic

Many factors contribute to wellbeing including: the state of our mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health (as described by Te Whare Tapa Wha), our connection to others and the environment - along with other matters, such as dealing with an addiction or anxiety, employment status, housing conditions and access to healthy kai. These are the topics we explore in print and in video animation format.

Community engagement key to resource relevance

Four months of community engagement helped inform the plain language resources and, where possible, they will be translated and captioned in a range of languages including te reo Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Māori and more.

Health Navigator Charitable Trust CEO and clinical director Janine Bycroft says: "It may seem like COVID has gone but it hasn’t, and we see many whānau, particularly in priority communities, still experiencing major disruption, disadvantage, challenges and pressures. From young to old, the social, mental and psychological consequences are enormous.

"These new topics were identified by people in those communities as ones that they really needed and could not easily find elsewhere," Dr Bycroft says.

A team of cultural engagement and consumer advisors assisted in the creation of the web pages, stories and videos.

Acting executive director commissioning and community services, Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, Waitematā, Tim Wood, says the project aimed "to create and promote plain language and whānau-friendly resources to support people with COVID-19 from diagnosis to recovery - as well as people without COVID-19 who are trying to cope in extreme circumstances."

In particular, the resources:

- provide specific advice about psychosocial challenges

-provide specific advice about where and how to access support

- improve knowledge and understanding about what to expect if you get COVID-19

- reduce anxiety about the unknown and give people the knowledge and confidence to manage on a day-to-day basis.

The final tranche of resources still to be released will be a set of easily printed factsheets in English and five other languages. While the resources and tools are developed in response to COVID-19 in Tāmaki Makaurau, they remain relevant, available and useful country-wide.

About Health Navigator NZ

The Health Navigator NZ website, which has 1.7 million page views per month, provides one place for New Zealanders to find reliable and trustworthy health information and self-care resources. It is a non-profit community initiative combining the efforts of a wide range of partner and supporter organisations and is overseen by the HNCT. It is endorsed by the Royal New Zealand College of GPs and has Health on the Net (HON) accreditation.

About WOVEN consumer advisors

WOVEN is a HNCT initiative to increase engagement of tangata whaiora in the design, planning and development of health services throughout New Zealand. It is funded by Te Whatu Ora.