Kaitaia Hospital and the Far North Mental Health and Addiction Services have been leading the way with their Active Workplace programme since its inception in late 2014.

The wellness committee made up of the Heads of Departments and led by Operational Manager, Neta Smith, has been instrumental in producing and implementing wellness initiatives for all staff.  Wellness initiatives have included a focus with their on-site gym classes, step aerobics and boxing.  This was followed by stress release classes of yoga and Zumba (lead by one staff member being a certified Zumba teacher) and soon became popular.

The committee’s monthly wellness calendar also included bike challenges, run/walks and participation in the workplace Ray White Hatea Loop Challenge.  In addition to exercise, healthy eating was promoted via shared healthy kai, an established in house garden with healthy produce benefiting mental health clients, their families and staff.  Other initiatives included team building trips away, stress buster educational opportunities, provision of active wear for staff, installation of cycle racks, Te Reo classes, lifestyle coaching and winter wellness checks.

The winter wellness checks saw 120 staff participate and measurements that were taken included height, weight, waist circumference, resting heart rate, blood pressure checks, blood sugar levels and a two minutes fitness test.  Three months after initial testing, staff were re-tested and showed glowing results with

• 56% having improved blood pressure
• 43.8% showing steady weight loss
• 37.5% reducing their Body Mass Index (taking them out of the diabetic range),
• 50% reducing waist circumference
• 37.5% increasing their fitness levels

Sharon Adams, Sport Northland’s Active Workplace Coordinator who supports workplaces in their wellness journey reflects “the team at Kaitaia Hospital have certainly paved the way to keeping on top of workplace wellness and it’s absolutely awesome to see the results that the staff have achieved.  It was so pleasing to see the team rewarded with winning the Northland Health Sector collaboration award for their Active Workplace programme last year too”.

“Since starting with Sport Northland, the team are still firmly making workplace wellness a priority in staff care.  A common theme from staff indicates that the programme identifies and meets their needs” says Adams.  Many of the staff commented “It was a really good initiative as without the testing I would not have realised I had such high blood pressure.”

We wish Kaitaia Hospital all the best with the continuation of their Active Workplace programme as they graduate from the programme this month.