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APR – Auckland region Psychosocial Response Project

This project was carried out by Health Navigator Charitable Trust in 2022–2023. It arose from the Ministry of Health’s Kia Kaha, Kia Māi, Kia Ora Aotearoa: COVID-19 Psychosocial and Mental Wellbeing Plan; a framework for actions to support the mental wellbeing of New Zealanders in response to the impacts of COVID-19.

Funded by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora Waitematā, a range of webpages, factsheets and videos (with multiple translations) were created to support people in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Māori and Pacific Peoples were the primary focus of the project as they were likely to be disproportionately affected by COVID and its impact on hauora, employment and education.

The Health Navigator website (since rebranded as Healthify) was an ideal repository for COVID-19 related information as we already had a huge following from primary care providers, healthcare organisations and the general public. We were one of the main providers of COVID-19 health and medicines information in Aotearoa. During the pandemic we were getting approximately 1.8 million page views per month.

Purpose

The main goals of the APR project were as follows.

To improve knowledge and understanding about what to expect if you get COVID or have to live in lockdown or within the ‘traffic light’ system regulations for any length of time.
To reduce anxiety about the unknown and give people the knowledge and confidence to manage on a day-to-day basis.
To provide specific advice about agreed topics identified by the Auckland COVID psychosocial response plan teams.
To provide specific advice about where and how to access support.
To assist government and non-government agencies in their attempts to inform and support their target audiences/clients.

Outputs

Topic pages

A total of 20 topic pages were developed and were collated under two main themes – emotional support and practical support. Landing pages were developed to house these two sets.

Examples of emotional support pages were Māori mental health and peer support, LGBTQI+ mental health and peer support and Pasifika mental health and peer support. Practical support pages included Housing support and resources, Keeping kai on the table and Easing money worries.

Although these pages were aimed at people living in the Auckland region, much of the messaging was appropriate for a national audience. Throughout the time of COVID-19 the content was regularly updated to reflect changes in what was available, how to access support and government regulations in relation to isolation, the traffic light system and mask wearing for example. Subject matter experts were involved as reviewers.

Not all of these pages are still on the Healthify website, but many are still there having been repurposed for the ‘post COVID-19’ climate. An example is Working from home which continues to be relevant as so many more people are working remotely all or part of the time.

Fact sheets

Some of the pages were converted into shorter version fact sheets and provided in 6 languages: English, te reo Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Samoan, Tongan and simplified Chinese.

See examples of the factsheets below:

Videos

Many of the pages (and existing COVID-19 pages on the Health Navigator website) had accompanying videos made, again with a range of different language versions. These were collectively known as the Aotearoa e te tau! COVID video series. Most of the videos centred around an animated cast of characters who were used to present health tips relating to their own circumstances. The characters were of various ethnicities to represent Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse population.

Characters included Koro Ken, a Māori kaumātua with diabetes (who lost weight during the video series as he followed his own lifestyle advice), his daughter Alice and teenage mokapuna Pania and Rawiri. Extended family members included Tongan and Pakeha in-laws.

Other videos featured actual people talking about their own experiences and offering messsages about mental health and wellness. Again people of different ethnicities were involved.

The videos featured on the webpages were released through social media, along with back stories about the characters’ lives, and are still available on the Health Navigator Charitable Trust YouTube channel. The 13 APR videos are hosted in a section called COVID-19 mental wellness support.

Video examples

(Health Navigator Charitable Trust, 2022)

Throughout the development of these topics and videos, consultation with community groups and orgnisations was carried out to inform the APR team about:

what was needed, and
how messages should be presented in order to make the information engaging, relevant and inclusive.

An equity focus remained at the forefront.

Feedback on this project and on the website more broadly contributed to the rebranding of the Health Navigator website to Healthify in 2023.

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