1000 Whānau Homes: Tiaki Whānau Tiaki Ora
Te Rau Ora (formerly Te Rau Matatini) has highlighted the need to expand the reach of suicide prevention from a broad community level to an approach that involves engaging at the whānau level.
Te Rau Ora developed an approach that deliberately centres on Whānau Champions and communities to offer a programme called Tiaki Whānau Tiaki Ora that seeks to connect with 1000 Māori whānau homes.
Tiaki Whānau Tiaki Ora (Protecting Whānau, Protecting Life) is designed to build healthy whānau by increasing their awareness of risk factors to suicide and the strategies that will strengthen whānau resilience. The basis of the program is whānaungatanga and respectful information sharing rather than facilitator led presentations.
It is our belief that in every whānau there are Champions, who have experience in supporting their whānau or people in their community, they have knowledge of whānau potential and wellbeing, as well as an understanding of mental health and the impacts of negative determinants.
The team that offer this work is called Te Au – a unit in Te Rau Ora who provide a one day facilitated workshop to whānau, and once recruited, access to a whānau tool kit, online mentoring package and support team is made available to the Whānau Champion.