MANA TAKATA STORY
The Healthy Homes Initiative
The Better Homes programme takes an in-depth look at whānau housing in the Otago region, with a strong focus on support and guidance. This allows us to help whānau tackle things like home improvements and material hardship, which can directly affect wellbeing and good health during the cold winter months.
Notes from the CEO
With summer officially over, we’re already feeling a cooler chill in the air and as we move towards winter, the warmth of our homes becomes increasingly important.
That’s when we’re more likely to experince the cold, damp homes that can be so harmful to our health. Here at Aukaha, we’re continually working towards improving whānau wellbeing through our Healthy Homes Initiative.
Sitting within our Mana Tākata Team, the Better Homes programme takes an in-depth look at whānau housing in the Otago region, with a strong focus on support and guidance. This allows us to help whānau tackle things like home improvements and material hardship, which can directly affect wellbeing and good health during the cold winter months.
Our teams work with whānau to identify who qualifies for HHI assistance and we’re currently in the porcess of creating a referral base so we can help whānau get their homes ready for winter.
It’s also about helping people to better understand the connection between cold, damp homes and preventable illnesses such as infectious respiratory conditions, rheumatic fever and meningitis. If nothing else, the Covid-19 pandemic has made us all aware of the need for healthy environments and we’re keen to share our tips for drier, warmer, healthier homes.
Better Homes Referral
We’ve also recently developed the Better Homes Referral, which is looked after by our HHI team. This determines the eligibilty of whānau for our three housing services – the Otago Home Upgrades Programme, TPK Critical and Essential Repairs and the Healthy Homes Initiative. These three main projects are geared towards providing healthy home environments for whānau, and by integrating them all within the Healthy Homes Initiative, we can achieve better outconmes for whānau.
And it’s great to hear from Lucy Higgins, the Better Homes Home Performance Assessor that “we are seeing the immediate and positive impact on whānau wellbeing from our housing interventions”.
I’m immensely proud of all three initiatives and by working closely with our whānau, our teams can weave a full wrap-around care programme for families that may be eligible for more than one programme. It means we can all work together seamlessly and everyone benefits.
And there’s no doubt that warm, dry whānau are happy, healthy whānau.
"We are seeing the immediate and positive impact on whānau wellbeing from our housing interventions"
Lucy Higgins, Better Homes Home Performance Assessor
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