Update on Te Rā Haumaru Tūroro o Aotearoa | Aotearoa Patient Safety Day – September 2020

The Health Quality & Safety Commission will hold Te Rā Haumaru Tūroro o Aotearoa | Aotearoa Patient Safety Day on Tuesday 17 November.

Our chosen theme for Aotearoa Patient Safety Day comes from Getting Through Together | Whāia E Tātou Te Pae Tawhiti, a national mental health and wellbeing campaign by All Right? – Community and Public Health (a division of the Canterbury District Health Board) and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

We had planned to observe Aotearoa Patient Safety Day on 17 September however, due to the New Zealand election and pressure on the health system from COVID-19, we have delayed the day to November and will run a much-reduced campaign to previous years.

While the Commission’s promotional activity will focus on 17 November, some organisations have signalled that they will continue the promotion over the course of a week. You are welcome to choose whichever approach suits your organisation; we ask that promotion begins on or after 17 November.

Resources

Our campaign will be largely social media-based. A package of digital resources will be available to providers from late October/early November. More information about the activities and resources is available below.

Health care worker/consumer videos

We are developing a two short videos from health care workers, consumers and whānau about the impact of COVID-19 and why it’s important health care workers take care of their own wellbeing. These can be used on social media, in waiting areas, on intranets and websites, and more.

Links to useful mental health and wellbeing resources

A list of existing mental health and wellbeing resources will be developed. You can use these however you wish, depending on the needs of your organisation. You might consider sharing this list to staff as is, choosing one resource to profile per day, or adapting the list by adding links to your own content.

Webinar

A webinar focusing on mental health and wellbeing will be held on 17 November. Our speakers include Rachel Prebble, organisation development manager at Capital & Coast District Health Board (DHB) and a clinical psychologist. Rachel led the development of a wellbeing framework for the DHB and coordinated the staff welfare and wellbeing response to COVID-19 for Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs.

More information about the webinar and how to register will be sent out to our Aotearoa Patient Safety Day contacts, and promoted on the Commission website, in our e-Digest and on our social media channels.

Social media toolkit

The social media toolkit will include videos and images, as well as suggested posts for your social media channels. You can use as many posts as you wish, either on 17 November, or spread over the week (Tuesday 17 November–Monday 23 November).

Team and connection-building

We also encourage organisations to hold a morning or afternoon tea, or other event, to engage as many health care workers as possible on 17 November (alert levels permitting). This is an opportunity to acknowledge that this has been a difficult time, encourage staff to connect and support each other, and to say thank you for their hard work and dedication. We will develop an information pack for these events including team and connection-building ideas.

Questions

Questions about Te Rā Haumaru Tūroro o Aotearoa | Aotearoa Patient Safety Day can be sent to us at communications@hqsc.govt.nz.