Source: Radio New Zealand
Donna Moon vaccinating a child. Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation (PHO)
A Bay of Plenty health team has had a big boost in childhood vaccination rates, saying “pressure free kōrero” and giving people space are the keys to success.
Over about 18 months, the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation (PHO) has lifted the vaccination rate for Māori under-twos in its care from 58 percent to 70 percent.
For all its under-twos, it has gone from 78 to 83 percent.
Childhood vaccination rates for diseases like whooping cough and measles took a hit in the Covid era and have been slow to recover in many parts of the country.
The Western Bay of Plenty team said a flexible and personalised approach was driving change.
It was holding night and mobile clinics, and had nurses who would visit people at home if they had not been able to contact them.
Donna Moon was one of the outreach vaccinators.
She got mixed reactions when she turned up at people’s homes but said face-to-face visits made a huge difference.
It was a privilege to be at someone’s home and she always tried to respect their boundaries, she said.
“I will always say ‘look there is no pressure in this conversation’ early in the conversation,” she said.
Donna Moon was one of the outreach vaccinators. Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation (PHO)
There were many reasons why people were behind on their vaccinations.
“It could simply be that they haven’t had time, they haven’t had petrol money, they’ve made appointments then the kids have been sick so there’s so many different reasons. Sometimes mum is needle-phobic and they just can’t face it,” she said.
Moon said she rarely vaccinated children at the first home visit, more often having a chat and listening to any concerns before leaving.
The nurses understood that patients had often been dealing with a lot of conflicting information on social media and it was hard for many to work out what was scientific and what was emotional, she said.
It was important to give people lots of space – many wanted to discuss it with their whānau, she said.
“We know that if we go at people with a whole lot of factual information, they’ll just close off. They need time to think about it, especially if they have been in that space of being reluctant,” she said.
The team never judged people on their decisions or the time they were taking, she said.
The Western Bay of Plenty PHO is a partnership between 23 GP practices and the Ngāi te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui iwis.
They also worked with the public health services and other iwi health organisations – it ran its overnight clinics alongside Ngati Kahu Health.
Tori Macartney oversees the outreach vaccination team and said, for the night clinics, the starting point was a “pressure free kōrero.”
Some people would choose to have their children immunised there, others would just glean information.
About 75 percent of the PHO’s vaccinations were done in standard clinics – but having options for the other quarter was crucial, she said.
“Is it easiest for us to come to the home? Would they prefer the immunisation done in their whare or in a van or in a night clinic?” she said.
The chief executive of the PHO, Sarah Stevenson, said the collaborative approach was key.
It was also working hard to take an equitable approach to its work and the team had been working on getting a better understanding of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori.
Stevenson said one of the keys was to be very tailored to what the community needed and it was fantastic to see that working.
“It’s kind of delivering healthcare out there on the road in a way that is just more convenient,” she said.
“It’s an important service I think in any healthcare delivery that we look at what is the easiest and best way to deliver healthcare – and immunisation is no different.”
The organisation had about 148,000 patients enrolled across its clinics.
There were more than 800 under-twos covered by the statistics in the 18 month period, just over 120 of them Māori.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
