Troubled trust throws open doors

Embattled West Auckland Maori social service provider the Waipareira Trust is set to come under further public scrutiny next month - but it is attention the organisation welcomes.

The trust is holding an open day this week to showcase its services, and to allay community concerns following the trust's involvement with a number of controversies in the past year.

Trust chief executive Reg Ratahi said the last 12 months had been a difficult time for the board and staff, and it was important the community had an opportunity to see the services on offer and the work the trust did.

"We have had a battering and bruising over the last year. The open day is to show whanau we are more than the bad news they may have read or seen on television."

Mr Ratahi said the organisation, whose services range from health provision to trade training and housing, had come through recent scrutiny "with a clean bill of health".

Health services will be a focus of the open day, with the release of an independent report on health issues for the trust's 6400 clients.

Wai Health clinical director Dr Nikki Turner said research showed worrying trends emerging among the poor of West Auckland.

More than one in four of Wai Health clients, 70 per cent of whom were Maori, suffered multiple chronic conditions.

Dr Turner said research showed health problems were compounded by households coping with other social issues, including drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and family violence.

"What is emerging is a picture of our clients as typically a woman in her mid-50s suffering from multiple chronic health conditions, living in an environment where she also has to deal with whanau members or grandchildren suffering other problems."

She said Waipareira was unique in its ability to work with clients beyond just health needs.

In July last year outspoken Labour MP John Tamihere issued a statement alleging "incompetence, negligence or corruption" at the trust and called on Mr Ratahi and the then chairman, Eynon Delamere, to stand aside. He also criticised a trust call centre venture which the MP claimed had cost more than $3 million.

Mr Ratahi said the trust, which has 200 staff delivering 70 services at 10 locations, had been cleared of any wrong-doing in five external audits carried out last year.