Category: Health

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

The Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy sets out the direction for the health system to better support people and their whānau living with rare disorders. It provides a framework and long-term priorities that will guide health entities in improving health and wellbeing outcomes for people and their whānau with rare disorders over the decade 2024 to 2034. 

We have heard from people and their whānau living with rare disorders that they often face significant barriers to getting timely, effective and equitable health care. Practitioners may find it difficult to diagnose rare disorders or may not know how to support their health and wellbeing.

The strategy will improve system responsiveness and support for people and their whānau living with rare disorders, as well as service providers who often face difficulties meeting patient needs.

Our vision is for all people and their whanau living with rare disorders to share in pae ora (healthy futures) and live fulfilling lives.

Supporting publications

Rare voices and aspirations – This supporting document to the Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy outlines how we achieved the Strategy with support from a broad range of expertise across the health and other sectors. Read more.

Context and evidence – This supporting document to the Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy outlines the context in which the Strategy was developed and will operate, along with evidence used in developing it. Read more.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This supporting document to the Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy outlines how we achieved the Strategy with support from a broad range of expertise across the health and other sectors.

This document is linked with both the Strategy and the supporting document Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy: Context and Evidence. We recommend reading this document along with the other two.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This supporting document to the Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy outlines the context in which the Strategy was developed and will operate, along with evidence used in developing it.

This document is linked with both the Strategy and the supporting document Aotearoa New Zealand Rare Disorders Strategy: Rare voices and aspirations. We recommend reading this document along with the other two.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

The closing date for submissions is 11.00 pm, Wednesday 7 August 2024.

A submission form has been appended to the revised C3 to facilitate feedback. The form is also available online. The form is intended as a guide only. You are free to submit any information that you consider to be relevant.

Complete the consultation online

Your views matter

C3 (and any amendments made) is a secondary legislation made by the Ministry under section 86(6) of the Act. C3 applies to any person who ‘deals with’ a radiation source. The term ‘deal with’ is defined in section 5 of the Act and includes ‘to manufacture, possess, control, manage, use, transport, store, export, import, sell, supply, or dispose of a radiation source’. Also ‘deal with’ is interpreted to mean ‘to carry out any other activity or practice involving the radiation source’.

Those affected by the revised C3 include all regulated parties, and other people and organisations with a professional interest in radiation therapy.

The Ministry will review all in scope feedback received as part of this consultation and use it to inform future amendment or revocation of revised C3.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

This version of the New Zealand Pandemic Plan updates the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan: A framework for action (Ministry of Health 2017).

The interim update was completed at pace, is limited in scope, and reflects changes to how the health system is run since the 2022 reforms and some of the early lessons from the COVID-19 response. 

The update is part of a wider review of pandemic preparedness taking place in two stages. This two-stage approach means the interim plan can reflect the changes in who does what in the health system since the 2022 health reforms and ensure those changed roles and responsibilities are clear if a new pandemic was to occur tomorrow.  It focuses on on goals, principles, key considerations and high-level roles and responsibilities.   

Key changes include:  

• Broadening the scope to cover respiratory-type pathogens of pandemic potential. 
• Ensuring it is consistent with recent legislative changes, notably the 2022 health reforms. 
• Reflecting Heath New Zealand’s role in leading the operational health response, the Ministry of Health’s role in providing strategic and policy advice. 
• Embedding some early lessons learnt from COVID-19 response, including the process for doing regular public health risk assessments and adopting a flexible testing approach.  

The updated pandemic plan covers the health system response. It does not cover the all-of-government or wider societal response to a pandemic. It is also only one tool for developing the health system’s preparedness and complements preparedness work across health services and wider society.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

In June 2023, the Public Health Agency, within the Ministry of Health, commissioned research agency Verian to undertake a series of research projects and population surveys into attitudes and behaviours related to public health measures following the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of COVID-19 on New Zealanders’ attitudes and behaviours towards public health measures and use this knowledge to better prepare the Ministry, and other decision makers, for future pandemics and other major health threats.  

This work is split into two parts, each with two reports. The first part is two repeated behavioural surveys to monitor adherence to public health measures over time, covering both intention and actual behaviour. The second part is a qualitative analysis to explore drivers of COVID-19 related public health behaviours, and to quantify the impact of barriers and other factors on adherence to public health measures. This involves qualitative interviews followed by a survey.

This report, Measuring public health behaviours and intentions is one of the two based on findings from the behavioural survey. It is the second of the four reports to be published.

Key findings

• Half of the adults who had flu symptoms and interacted with others at a place of work or study, said they interacted with others while unwell. A third of children interacted with other children at their school while they were unwell.
• Parents/caregivers are more likely to keep their children home from school if they’re unwell than adults are to keep themselves away from work (83% vs 55% ‘at least somewhat likely’).
• Around 50% of New Zealanders said COVID-19 hasn’t impacted their intention to get vaccinated for the flu, other illnesses, and a new pandemic. The remaining 50% are relatively evenly split between being more likely to get vaccinated now than they were before COVID-19 and being less likely. Most parents/caregivers are just as likely to get vaccinations for their children, as they were before COVID-19 (22% ‘more likely’, 61% ‘just as likely’).

The report is informed by 1,642 surveys conducted online using online research panels. The sample is structured to be demographically representative of the population by age, gender, and region. Māori and Pacific peoples over-sampled relative to population to ensure sufficient sample sizes for analysis – 369 of the 1,642 interviews were with Māori and 200 were with Pacific peoples (30 people identified as both Māori and Pacific).​ An additional 197 surveys were conducted by telephone – 109 with Māori and 101 with Pacific peoples (13 people identified as both Māori and Pacific).​ Surveying was conducted 31 October to 29 November 2023.​

The report will help enhance the Ministry’s understanding of people’s recent and intended public health behaviours and how these have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

There have been some encouraging signs of a reduction in lives lost to suicide in the past few years, after a decade of relatively static rates. Evidence-based interventions are required to build on this momentum and ensure that as a country we continue to see reductions in the suicide rate.

This publication summarises the most up-to-date and relevant local and international literature on suicide prevention and postvention. It highlights what the most impactful interventions are for the New Zealand context and where the gaps in the research are.

Because literature on suicide prevention mostly reflects a Western, individualised, and often psychiatric perspective on suicide within a strong positivist tradition, this review has ensured a specific search for, and inclusion of, suicide prevention activity in Aotearoa New Zealand, irrespective of publication status or study design.

The review highlights the importance of, and relative under-utilisation of universal strategies that address structural determinants such as poverty, loss of land, discrimination and violence, un- and underemployment, such as unemployment benefits, active support of return to labour market programmes, social welfare and robust employment protection legislation.

Key evidence-based universal interventions include increasing adherence to responsible media suicide reporting guidelines, as well as application to social media and all public communication, restricting access to means of suicide, and reducing access to alcohol are critical. Selected and indicated interventions, including psychosocial assessment and support to address factors that increase suicidal distress that are delivered in the context of these universal approaches to suicide prevention, remain important and the promising practice is within mātauranga Māori and given the lack of focus in the field, this seems imperative to progress, with whānau being the appropriate unit of intervention.

Please note: The recommendations expressed in this report are derived from those undertaking the evidence synthesis and may not represent the views of Manatū Hauora

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

The 2023 Illicit Drug Harm Index, prepared by the National Drug Intelligence Bureau (a joint operation of New Zealand Customs Service, Ministry of Health, and New Zealand Police), uses the same methodology as the 2020 Illicit Drug Harm Index to calculate estimates of total harm and harm per kilogram of drug consumed. Illicit drugs potentially include legal drugs (such as medication) diverted to the illicit drug market and/or the misuse of medications and excludes alcohol and tobacco.