St John Waikato community engagement coordinator Coreen Pienaar, at the event in Tokoroa, South Waikato. Photo / Hato Hone St John
St John Waikato community engagement coordinator Coreen Pienaar, at the event in Tokoroa, South Waikato. Photo / Hato Hone St John
Longer living for Māori and Pacific people is a top priority as two Waikato organisations unite to boost education and improve minority health outcomes.
More than 200 people attended a market-style event last month, receiving free blood pressure checks, first aid training, and health education in Tokoroa.
To raise community awareness of the significant steps of preventing and treating health conditions, the event by Hato Hone St John Ambulance Waikato Area Committee and South Waikato Pacific Islands Community Trust emphasised the importance of accessible healthcare and addressing health issues amongst minorities.
On average, Māori and Pacific people live seven years less than those of European heritage, and were twice as likely to die from preventable diseases such as strokes, or heart disease.
St John community engagement coordinator for Waikato, Coreen Pienaar, said many factors contribute to that statistic.
The event was held outside the Tokoroa Medical Centre. Photo / Mike Scott
“There’s usually a lack of education which causes hesitancy, and healthcare can also be expensive. Most people don’t have medical insurance and don’t want to go to the doctors to keep forking out extra money.
“It’s often the fear of the unknown stopping people from acting in the moment, so we want to take away that hesitancy.”
She said if people knew of available healthcare options, they’d be more willing to seek them out.
“Most Tokoroa residents don’t know about the services available to them. They don’t know we have a youth cadet programme teaching kids from 5 to 18 years old life skills and first aid, they don’t know we run free first aid courses, and they don’t know we have a koha-based health shuttle service available.
“Even something as basic as dialing 111 and asking for an ambulance can be daunting for some people, so we talked them through what they can expect on that call.
“You could see how surprised people were to find out that all these services are available to them, it was quite sad, but a good thing.”
The health shuttle drives people to hospital appointments when they can’t transport themselves, resulting in missing out on medical care.
Since the event, Pienaar said the health shuttle saw an influx of Māori and Pacific people utilising the service.
“Our shuttle assisted almost a bus full of people from Tokoroa to Hamilton last week. If we weren’t around last month for the event, they would’ve had no idea this service was around for them.
“People don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s our job to inform them and show them what they can do to improve their own health situation.”
Pienaar said increasing education and improving health outcomes for Māori and Pacific people was significant.
“We want them to live longer and have better healthcare, and better services available to them,” she said.
“We want our youth to be better educated from a young age and teach them those life skills because we want to see the ambulance service grow too.”
Akarere Henry, Southern Waikato Pacific Island Community Services Trust chief executive, said the event was a huge success.
“Many attendees [outside the Tokoroa Medical Centre] were astonished at how much they had learned, and with a new commitment to looking after their overall health much better in the future”, she said.
Pienaar encourages Waikato residents to get on board the 3 Steps for Life Programme which teaches the public how to call 111, administer CPR, and use a defibrillator.
Both organisations are working together to bring similar events to Tokoroa in the future.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.
