Maori

Statistics showing Mäori are 9 per cent more likely to get cancer than non-Mäori – and 77 per cent more like to die of it than other New Zealanders – have prompted the Health Research Council to fund two Massey University research projects aimed at improving overall cancer care for Mäori patients and increasing the rate of survival for cervical cancer.

Research presented this week at the Public Health Association Conference in Dunedin proposes that many New Zealand households should be eligible for a smartcard to help them buy healthy food.

An Auckland mother who returned to school after raising three children received the ProCare Prize in General Practice today as the top-rated Maori medical student at the fifth-year undergraduate medical course at University of Auckland’s School of Population Health.

The Bachelor of Nursing Māori has jumped through the last hoop of its approval and is set to begin in July 2009. Whitireia Community Polytechnic will become one of only two providers of a nursing programme for Māori in the country and already offers a Bachelor of Nursing and a Bachelor of Nursing (Pacific) and postgraduate qualifications to seven district health boards.

A Christchurch community which has pulled together to encourage its residents to consider the dangers of smoking is beginning to show a shift in attitudes toward tobacco, with almost a hundred people in the process of trying to quit.

Research by the University of Otago, Christchurch indicates there may be disparities in the quality of public hospital care for Maori inpatients in some clinical areas.

“Didn’t even hurt,” said 17 year old Terence Samasoni at the Influenza Vaccination Clinic at Cameron House last week. Terence was the last of the seven children in his family to get vaccinated, with five of the siblings being vaccinated last month.

New Zealand’s health education system is failing Maori, a South Island academic has told the annual Public Health Association Conference in Dunedin.

An international report focusing on the health problems faced by indigenous children - including young Māori in New Zealand - has concluded that they are the result of social rather than biological causes.

Nau mai, Haere mai

Kaumātua Care at Home
Free Training Workshop
Provide your Kaumātua with the best possible care at home

Guest Presenters: Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan and Woody

Te Whare Tapa Wha, Safe Handling Techniques, Bed Cares, Incontinence and more

November 6th – Cambridge St Johns - 16 Fort Street from 10am
November 20th – Hamilton - Call for Details

Places are limited, register now phone Stacey 07 823 0309. Or email your interest to gotuataraxtra [dot] co [dot] nz

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Kia Ora

Te Hotu Manawa Maori (THMM), New Zealand’s only National Maori Heart Health organisation unequivocally supports the move to investigate the tobacco industry and the role it plays in the disproportionate morbidity and mortality rates of Maori.

A new toolkit detailing and celebrating projects to improve food security for Maori is being launched by the Obesity Action Coalition today.

PuTai Ora Maori ethics researchers have produced a set of ethical guidelines for anyone undertaking research with Maori.

A national “fluoridation-free New Zealand” campaign was jointly launched on Saturday in Whangarei, before a meeting of about 60 citizens, wanting their water to remain unfluoridated. The campaign comprises a coalition of national health-focussed organisations. Initially formed by Fluoride Action Network NZ (FANNZ) and Health Freedom NZ, it includes the NZ Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (comprising doctors and dentists), the NZ Health Trust, the Safe Food Campaign, the Weston Price Foundation, and the Soil and Health Association of NZ (Publishers of Organic NZ).