Te Korowai Aroha ki te Tangata, the Gonville Health co-design initiative, moved into a new phase in early April. Gonville Health Working Group members have co-designed a three-phase change model which they began to action in February 2025. The change model focuses on the clinic’s physical environment, communication and culture and clinical practice.
Te Korowai Aroha ki te Tangata is using a Kaupapa Māori Appreciative Inquiry (KMAI) lens to strengthen what is ‘right’ and working well for Māori whānau at Gonville Health. It therefore celebrates and utilises whānau knowledge and experience in the change process. The use of a KMAI approach in Te Korowai Aroha ki te Tangata mahi reflects the wider use of the approach throughout the He Waka Eke Noa study.
Whānau, together with other members of the Group, have now agreed to shift their attention to the second phase of the change model; refining Gonville Health team culture and communications. In the background though, phase one work on refreshing the waiting room, consultation rooms and outdoor spaces continues. That work includes the ‘decluttering’ of the waiting room with Gonville Health responding to whānau recommendations that posters highlighting ill-health be replaced with ‘uplifting’ art works embracing te ao Māori themes. All this activity draws from, and builds on, data from the He Waka Eke Noa research.
At a hui in May, the research team and whānau will explore how the KMAI co-design process is working for whānau. We will look at how well KMAI is positioning whānau to fully participate in co-design activity alongside the primary health care provider. This evaluation mahi is set to include refining the logic model underpinning Te Korowai Aroha ki te Tangata with whānau. The fine-tuning of the anticipated short and medium-term outcomes highlighted by the logic model will be a key topic of conversation during the hui.
In the meantime, the Gonville Health members of the Working Group have been charged with leading out culture and communications refinement with their wider team. First up is the revisiting of the Gonville Health values, featured on the Gonville Health website, which include whanaungatanga, mana tangata and manaakitanga. Dedicated work time to explore these values, and how they are reflected in everyday practice, is a feature of the culture and communications refinement that Working Group members are set to action.
Over the coming months, our He Waka Eke Noa research team will update website users on the Gonville Health Working Group’s three-point change model progress.
