A new way of delivering wellbeing, mental health and addictions support through general practice.
TO HEAD TOWARDS WELLNESS
Te Tumu Waiora, te reo for ‘to head towards wellness’ puts mental health and wellbeing at the heart of general practice.
Te Tumu Waiora is a programme that has new roles – Health Improvement Practitioners (HIP) and Health Coaches – based in general practices to help people with their wellbeing and mental health. They support people to make a plan and give them information and tools to manage their health better.
People see HIPs and Health Coaches for a wide range of reasons – some of the most common reasons are anxiety, stress, depression, sleep issues, family/relationship issues, lifestyle issues (nutrition, smoking), or help with managing long term conditions.
GPs or nurses in general practice can offer people the option of seeing the HIP or Health Coach very quickly – often immediately. This is usually at the general practice and is free of charge.
Te Tumu Waiora has been operating in Canterbury since late 2019, and is increasingly becoming available in more general practices.
Check out our practice map to see if there are HIPs and Health Coaches near you.
I went to GP as I was having difficulty with sleep. I struggled to know how to access support as I am new to New Zealand and I am quite isolated. I didn’t know what was available or what to do. I had previously heard about the Health Coaches, and thought it was good that my practice had them.
After the first appointment, it was such a relief to have a plan and some actions that might help me to be going on with. I was feeling so overwhelmed and to be able to make a plan with the HIP was calming.