Te Tumu Waiora - Te Reo for to head towards wellness - is a new way of delivering wellbeing, mental health and addictions support through general practice.

The model puts mental health and wellbeing at the heart of general practice with focused roles, Health Improvement Practitioners and Health Coaches, working as part of the general practice team. This model allows for a 'warm handover' which means that a GP or nurse in the general practice can offer someone who is experiencing mental distress or addiction issues the option of seeing the HIP in the same location quickly – often immediately.

The HIPs and Health Coaches provide advice and support based on individualised goals, promoting self-management and work closely with local community NGO support workers to ensure people can access the full range of help they need.

Late in 2019, The Ministry of Health released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Integrated Primary Mental Health and Addictions Services across New Zealand. 

This proposal was part of the government’s Wellbeing Budget 2019 announcement and focused on one element of a new mental health pathway. This proposal included:

• peer/cultural health coaches
• health improvement practitioners 
• support for general practice
• seamless access to cultural and social supports, and 
• effective links and coordination between primary and secondary mental health and addiction services. 

The ministry sought collaborative responses to deliver the service to the enrolled population of selected general practices within a defined geographical area. 

Canterbury Clinical Network facilitated the development of the Canterbury response. Development of this response included the establishment of a sponsorship group of the three PHOs, Navigate Waitaha and the CDHB. This group was supported by the discussions and decisions put forward by a technical advisory group (TAG). 

A co-design workshop was held 6 September and the key themes from that were incorporated into Canterbury's proposal. The Te Tumu Waiora model, recently piloted both nationally and regionally, was referenced in the design of a Canterbury response