Health promotion in Whanganui

Our Alcohol and other drug health promoter carries out a range of activities aimed at reducing alcohol and other drug-related harm in the community. These include:

• involvement with policy development with council and other enforcement partners
• submissions and liaison with central and local government on alcohol and drug issues
• encouraging community action to reduce alcohol and other drug-related harm
• promoting community awareness and knowledge about alcohol and other drug-related harm
• implementing workplace initiatives
• collaborating with school based Public Health Nurses and the SUPP team to increase awareness amongst youth and provide relevant resources and education
• collation of data relating to Emergency Department alcohol-related presentations
• joint projects in conjunction with other agencies such the Police, the Fire Service, ACC and District Council to publicise and reduce the health risks that might arise from the use of alcohol or other drugs.

By working with various groups in the community, the Public Health Service aims to reduce the harms caused to society and individuals by the excessive consumption and misuse of alcohol and other drugs.

A number of alcohol and drug-related resources are available from Te Whatu Ora Whanganui Public Health Centre, 2nd Floor Lambie Building, Whanganui Hospital. These include resources developed by the Health Promotion Agency (HPA) and the New Zealand Drug Foundation.

Contact our Alcohol and other drug health promoter for further information or resourcesby:

• Phone: 06 348 3150

Our Family violence intervention team aims to prevent intentional injuries to children and adults in the Whanganui region by:

• improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of tamariki and their whānau
• raising community awareness about family violence and supporting anti-violence campaigns and messages
• supporting strategic alliances formed with other agencies, to support the Whanganui Violence Intervention Network
• collaborating with others to prevent elder abuse and neglect
• increasing awareness in the community about positive parenting and alternatives to violence
• working alongside the Te Whatu Ora Whanganui Violence Intervention programme.

We are able to provide advice to colleagues and community organisations, schools, early childhood education centres, and any other groups needing information about Positive parenting, identification of family violence issues and what they can do about this.

We are all affected directly or indirectly. Family violence is everyone's business.

Assault and abuse (internal link)

HealthEd provides you with free and up-to-date public health resources from New Zealand health organisations.

HealthEd (external link)

Healthy active learning is a government programme that delivers education and health outcomes for children and youth across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Healthy active learning (external link)

Immunisation is an important component of Well Child and adult preventative health services. Over the last century, New Zealand has experienced a dramatic decline in vaccine-preventable diseases — largely due to the effectiveness and quality of the National Immunisation Programme.

Most vaccinations are administered at a general practice. If they are part of the national childhood immunisation programme, they are free.

National Immunisation Schedule (internal link)

For more information contact our Immunisation coordinator by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775

Mental health promotion applies to all people, building on their capacities and competencies.

Health promotion focuses on mental health outcomes that strengthen people's sense of control, resilience, and ability to cope with life’s challenges.

Mental health promoting actions and strategies are oriented to empowerment, choice, and participation. They strengthen protective factors, lessen risk factors and build on the social determinants of health, often involving partnerships across sectors.

Key areas of our mental health promotion:

• to raise awareness of requirement for positive mental health and wellbeing
• increase the number of education centres providing positive wellbeing and mentally healthy environments
• raise awareness in community of positive reporting on mental health issues
• strengthen community action to promote mental health and support people with experience of mental illness
• strengthen partnerships and collaboration on mental health initiatives with organisations in the community.

For more information contact our Public health centre by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775

Our Nutrition and physical activity promotion team seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of the people within our region. This is achieved by providing and supporting opportunities and choices for good nutrition options, choices and accessibility and increased opportunities to participate in physical activity by:

• supporting the development of policies within workplaces to increase workplace wellness
• working with education settings to increase active nutrition policies and practice
• providing advice and support to community based programmes that promotes and enables healthy behavior change
• assisting with the development and ongoing support of kaupapa Maori physical activity programmes
• committing ourselves to increase the knowledge to breastfeeding support, breastfeeding rates and increased number of supportive environments and within our local community.

Nutrition and physical activity can help:

• control your weight
• reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease
• reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes
• reduce your risk of some cancers
• strengthen your bones and muscles
• improve your mental health and mood
• improve your ability to do daily activities
• help prevent falls, if you're an older adult.

For more information contact our Public health centre by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775

Most injuries are predictable and preventable. We all need to take steps to reduce injury by managing our personal risk and creating safer environments. Every day in the news, we hear about car crashes, a fall, a house fire, a drowning, an incident in a workplace, or a sports injury. Though many people see them as unrelated to each other — they are all injuries, either intentional or unintentional.

The Safer communities and injury prevention promotion activities focus on populations most at risk of injury such as children, youth and the elderly, and on specific settings including schools, workplaces and recreation settings. Within these settings the health Promotion works in collaboration with other agencies to identify risk factors and actively promotes strategies and initiatives that will reduce these risks.

We know that we live in a vibrant and positive community but there is always more we can do to promote the social, environmental and physical wellbeing for the people in Whanganui district.

Our community already conducts a range of safety initiatives focused on residents, businesses and community groups, including programmes around safety and wellbeing, family violence, road safety, fire safety, child safety, workplace health and safety, emergency planning, alcohol and drug misuse. Many of these are intersectoral approaches. Through collaboration we maximise the impact of our work to achieve a significant and sustainable improvement to living conditions within Whanganui.

Whanganui is an International Safe Community (ISC). ISC is a World Health Organisation concept that recognises safety as 'a universal concern and a responsibility for all'. As a result of this Whanganui has developed a Safer Whanganui plan which strives to make Whanganui a safer place. Accreditation by the International Safe Communities Network formalises our commitment to doing all we can to create the safest possible community for those who live, work or visit our community.

Safe Communities (external link)

For more information contact our Public health centre by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775

Our Sexual health promotion team aims to promote positive sexual and reproductive health and responsible sexual behaviour. These goals are intended to help minimise the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancy throughout Whanganui by:

• reducing incidence and impacts of STIs
• reducing stigma and discrimination
• improve reproductive health status
• increase awareness of information promoting sexual health and wellbeing
• increased access and uptake of resources and shared learning.

Our Sexual health promoter provides advice to colleagues and community organisations on effective health promotion programmes which includes:

• policy work
• community action and community development
• health education and advocacy
• assistance and support to those developing their own sexuality programmes and initiatives
• promote up and coming training for health professionals and trainees.
• assistance with school and workplace policies on issues such as HIV/AIDS, communicable disease, sexuality education, sexual and reproductive health.

Sexual health services — Manawatū-Whanganui (internal link)

For more information contact our Public health centre by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775

The aim of our Smokefree/Auahi Kore Health Promotion role is to run projects and initiatives to reduce the uptake of smoking in young people, encouraging smokers to quit and reducing the impact of smoking on the community.

We promote smokefree environments, homes and cars and work with marae, local bodies, sports clubs and other groups around smokefree policies.

The aims are to reduce the impact and incidence of tobacco-related harm by:

• increasing the number of people having quit attempts
• reducing smoking initiation
• increasing the number of smokefree environments.

Our smokefree health promotion team provide advice to colleagues and community organisations on effective health promotion programmes that include:

• policy work
• community action and community development
• health education
• advocacy.

Quitting smoking (internal link)

For more information contact our Public health centre by:

• Phone: 06 348 1775