The Midland Region District Health Boards

 

The Midland region is comprised of five District Health Boards:

Waikato DHB

Waikato DHB serves a population of more than 360,000 people, stretching from the northern tip of Coromandel Peninsula to south of Taumarunui, and from Raglan in the west to Waihi in the east.  About 40 per cent of its population lives in rural areas.

Lakes DHB

Lakes DHB is responsible for providing and funding healthcare services for the 102,000 people who live in the Lakes region. The Lakes DHB hospitals at Rotorua and Taupo are an example of one of the groups the DHB funds. The others include private providers, Maori providers, mental health service providers and non-government organisations. Lakes DHB is responsible for ongoing health and disability needs assessment of its population, and for planning health service delivery.

Approximately one third of the Lakes population lives in the Taupo region and two thirds live in the Rotorua region. A total of 32 per cent of the Lakes population is Maori, and the Lakes region has a small (approximately 3,600 as at 2004) but growing Pacific population.

Taranaki DHB

Taranaki DHB serves a population of 104,280 people, or 2.8 per cent of New Zealand’s population. Between the 2001 and 2006 census, the population usually resident in the region increased by 1,266, or 1.2 per cent.

• 15.8 per cent of the population are identified as Māori (14.6 per cent nationally).

• 1.4 per cent identified as Pacific peoples (6.9 per cent nationally).

• 2.1 per cent as Asian (9.2 per cent nationally).

• 80.7 per cent as European and other (69.3 per cent nationally).

Bay of Plenty DHB

The Bay of Plenty DHB serves a population of 200,000 on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, taking in the major population centres of Tauranga, Katikati, Te Puke, Whakatane, Kawerau and Opotiki. It has the second fastest population growth rate of all New Zealand’s district health boards.

Tairawhiti DHB

Located in Gisborne, New Zealand, Tairawhiti District Health (TDH) is responsible for funding and ensuring the provision of health services for those in need of personal health and disability services. This work is done in the community and from Gisborne Hospital. In the 2006 census, Tairawhiti had a resident population of 44,499 or 1.1 per cent of the national population. With a population density of 5.3 people square kilometre it is one the North Island’s the most remote and sparely populated districts. 

 

WHAT IS THE MIDLAND REGIONAL MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTIONS NETWORK?

The Midland Regional Mental Health and Addiction Network consists of the five District Health Board Chief Executives, General Managers Planning & Funding and General Managers Maori Health in the Midland Region.  Arranged in three regional forums that meet monthly, these three groups provide the leadership and decision making capacity for the Midland Regional Mental Health and Addictions Network.

 

    Cathy Cooney  

Cathy Cooney Chief Executive Lakes DHB

Lakes District Health Board
is the lead DHB for the Regional Mental Health and Addictions Network

PURPOSE OF THE MIDLAND REGIONAL MENTAL HEALTH AND ADDICTIONS NETWORK

Background

In 2001, the five DHBs in the Midland region - Bay of Plenty, Lakes, Tairawhiti, Taranaki and Waikato - established a regional mental health network in line with the Ministry of Health advice as a means of consolidating the DHBs' spend against Blueprint dollars.

In 2005 the Midland Regional Network structure was reveiwed and it was agreed that the regional team needed to report directly to the Chief Executives via the GMs Planning and Funding and Maori Health.

The three-tiered structure has the Chief Executives, GMs Planning and Funding and GMs Maori Health providing the corporate and strategic leadership to the Midland Regional Network which is comprised of the Midland Regional Director, Midland Clinical Nurse Consultant, Midland Workforce Coordinator and Midland Administrator.  The Midland Regional Network is provided sector advice and action from the regional forums:

  1. He Tipuana Nga Kakano (Consumer)
  2. Nga Purei Whakataa Ruamano (Maori)
  3. Generating Action for Families (Family Whanau)
  4. Addictions
  5. Clinical Leadership Fourm (Provider Clinical Directors and Managers)
  6. Portfolio Managers
  7. Workforce Development
  8. Specialist Forums

Membership for He Tipuana Nga Kakano and Generating Action for Families are nominated through the Local Advisory Groups in each of the five District Health Boards.  Membership for Nga Purei Whakataa Ruamano are nominated through the local Maori Advisory Group.  Each District Health Board is able to nominate three representatives and it is the responsibility of these representatives to ensure information flows up to the regional forum and back to the local advisorys that they were nominated from.  At times representatives are elected to represent the region on national steering groups.  These representatives are responsible to ensure that feedback is sought from the region and that information is feedback to the region via the Midland Regional Network website.

The shared goals and an agreed common purpose are: