A Health and Wellbeing Plan for Ōtaki was presented to the Ōtaki Community Board on Tuesday September 4.

The plan, presented by MidCentral District Health Board project manager Kelly Isles, set out a strategy over the next five years. It was guided by four strategic intentions: to partner with people to support health and wellbeing; to connect and transform primary, community and specialist care; to achieve quality and excellence by design; and to achieve equity of access across community. It also revealed some interesting statistics on Ōtaki (see table Ōtaki Numbers).

“Our vision for Ōtaki is to have quality living, healthy lives and well communities,” Kelly told the board.

The DHB engaged with the Ōtaki community over three months, receiving feedback from more than 200 residents. People were asked three key questions: what works well in your community to keep people healthy and well?; what are the key issues/challenges affecting the health and wellbeing of your community?; what actions could be taken to improve the health and wellbing of your community?

The DHB team went back to the community and identified four priority areas on which to focus:

1. Access to healthcare – easy access when needed.
2. Mental health and addiction – improved mental health and addiction support in communities.
3. Better communication and connection – a district that has quality communications and connections between health services, people, whānau and communities.
4. Healthy living – a well community where everyone is supported to have quality living and healthy and active lives.

The board discussed the recurring theme of disconnected ambulance and hospital services because the area is divided between two DHBs. Cr James Cootes said the council was still working on resolving the issue with the DHBs.

In other business, the community board made $500 grants each to:

•  Spring Sing 2018 to help with the costs of venue hire, printing programmes and music.
•  Zianna McLeod to help with the costs of attending the UN Youth Global Development Tour (see page 8).
•  Kiri Winiata-Enoka to help with the costs of going to Brisbane with the U15 White Sox softball development team.
•  Ferdando Figueroa Pereira to help with the costs of venue hire for the Latin America & Spanish Film Festival in Ōtaki.

ŌTAKI NUMBERS

26.4% aged 65+

20.8% aged 0-14

71% live in deprived areas

14% Māori (2013 Census)

65% own their own home

70-73% increase for all Māori school leavers with NCEA L2 or above since 2009

78-80% increase for all school leavers with NCEA L2 or above since 2009

61.3% aged 15+ have annual income of $30,000 or less