2024 Network Hui

The Health NZ Health Workforce Planning and Development team invited the Leadership & Advisory Group to provide them with advice on the dementia mate wareware workforce for the 2024/25 Health Workforce Plan. This meeting was the Network’s opportunity to contribute their expertise to this advice.

At the meeting, representatives from Ageing Well, Health NZ, introduced the Plan. Following this, participants worked in breakout rooms to discuss the following questions from the Health NZ workforce planning team:

• What might we have missed or not seen clearly, looking at the data we had available on the dementia sector? They noted that there was quite limited information about workforce shortages in their core data
• What could they have done over the next year and over the next three years that would have made the biggest difference for them?
• What would success have looked like to them out of a Health Workforce Plan?
• Anything else they wanted the team to know and reflect on as they started to shape their next Workforce Plan

Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand had recently released the first report from their review of funding and service models for aged care services, which had begun in July the previous year. The report highlighted some significant challenges facing older people, whānau and their communities, providers, workers, needs assessors, and funders.

Phase two of the review had begun and was focused on developing recommendations for service and funding models that would result in a more integrated care model, improved efficiency in the application of resources, and regulatory and funding regimes that were more fit for purpose.

This online Network meeting, co-hosted by Health NZ, was a significant opportunity for the Dementia Mate Wareware Ecosystem to contribute to future approaches to dementia mate wareware care. Discussions about funding and services were held regarding the following topics:

• Aged residential care
• Home and community support services
• Community support.
• Primary and pharmacy care.

Great communication support can help people living with dementia mate wareware to maintain their sense of self, their relationships, and their quality of life. Communication is caring – we aren’t just chatting. We are acknowledging each other as people. Our supportive communication skills can help improve the quality of our relationships, understanding, and moments of joy with the people we support. 

With or without dementia, meaningful activities and meaningful relationships are at the heart of a positive and enjoyable life. But what is a meaningful activity? How can we find activities that suit the unique person? How do we help them engage? What makes an activity meaningful?