After a 12 month break due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are so pleased to finally be back on track with phase 2 of the Whakahekenga Project. Funded by the Health Research Council, our project is exploring end of life service use for people living in communities experiencing financial deprivation. Phase 1 is almost completed and we are in the final stages of looking at service utilisation in the last year of life using data provided by Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty and Te Toka Tumai Auckland as well as Primary Health Organisations and Hospices.
We were sorry to lose our community partner Rakau Tautoko earlier this year as they reprioritised their work to focus on the impact of COVID-19 on their community. We wish them well in their work with the Maungakiekie-Tamaki community in Auckland. Over the past few months we have been meeting with Auckland City Mission Team who have agreed to be a partner in this project. This has enabled us to incorporate people who are homeless or vulnerably housed, adding a unique perspective to the research.
In Auckland we will be running focus groups initially with the Auckland City Mission team. We will then connect with their services users to explore the impact of homelessness at the end of life. A focus on the strengths of each community will remain at the forefront of the phase 2 work.
As we gain momentum with this project, I look forward to providing regular updates. Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like more information about the project: j.robinson@auckland.ac.nz
Dr Jackie Robinson
Research Lead
Auckland City Mission
Meet Linda Murphy, our partnership liaison with the Auckland City Mission. She works as the Health & Social Services Coordinator at Calder Health Centre on Hobson Street. She is Auckland-born, Wellington-educated, and attended the University of Auckland. “My career has included nursing, Information Science and more recently, Social Services and theology. Since 2004, when I moved into an apartment in the CBD, I have been working with Auckland’s homeless population. In 2011, I joined the Auckland City Mission’s Crisis Care team and later joined the Calder Health Team to improve integration of Mission services with Calder and to improve whānau health outcome. I have worked in conjunction with the Elder Persons Service since this time caring for our socially marginalised palliative patients. This involves daily contact to ensure our whānau are receiving the best possible care while homeless or housed in less than ideal conditions, such as boarding houses. The human right to housing and health care are two essential rights that drive my working day. To balance my life, I love gardening, and my husband and I have a lifestyle block which keeps us busy and fit.”
Webinar with Dr Kelli Stajduhar in August
Introductory presentation session in September Links for our Auckland City Mission partners: If you are one of our Auckland City Mission team members and still haven't filled out the photo release and/or focus group sign-up sheet, please click the links below to be directed to the forms. Photo Release Forms Link Focus Groups Sign-Up Link
Research Assistants
Liv Roe
Liv is the newest addition to the Te Ārai Research Group as a Research Assistant, coordinating the socialisation of the project to our community partners. She is currently a graduate student majoring in Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington. She has experience in social justice activism in the not-for-profit sector, particularly in human rights and governance leadership.
Stella Black
Over the next 6 months we will be focusing on fieldwork in the Eastern Bay of Plenty led by Stella Black (Ngāi Tūhoe, Whakatōhea, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Whakaue). Findings from phase 1 will be presented to service providers, bereaved whānau and people living with a life limiting illness participants as a way of facilitating discussions about the way in which services are accessed in the year before death.
