Combined Cancer Screening Hugely Successful For Wai Health

Te Whānau o Waipareira are celebrating the success of their flagship Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora (M2MO) Programme, a combined breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening service documented in an Evaluation Report being launched today.

M2MO was a one-year pilot programme run by Wai Health (the clinical arm of Waipareira) and now with funding from Health NZ it will continue as a service for another year.

Waipareira Clinical Governance Director, Ngaire Harris said the service is crucial for whānau.

“This is the first time breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening was combined. We had three different data areas to navigate with the three different areas. Cervical cancer self-testing is the biggest game changer for women’s health in our lifetime and we were fortunate to get that on the implementation stage. Our objective is to improve the rates of cervical, breast and bowel screening by engaging with whānau and identifying those overdue for screening. It’s mana motuhake – we each have our own mana and we should determine our own health. And our Cancer Navigation Nurses are incredible. End of life is never reported or mentioned. The heaviness we all feel when whānau pass, especially from bowel cancer is never talked about. I will continue advocating and voicing how important bowel cancer screening is for whānau".

The M2MO Programme Evaluation Report outlines the processes and results including 308 registered whānau, along with 50 cervical screenings and 79 breast screenings. Interviews were also conducted with some participants sharing their stories and experiences.

Wai Health Lead Nurse for M2MO Marewa Tibble credits their considered approach for making all the difference.

“The team were focused and they overcame barriers whānau experience with cancer screening like accessing services and mistrust of the mainstream health system. This is not an easy path for many people however M2MO simplified it with aroha and manaakitanga. I have this theory that we had a different approach with our rangatahi, our social media messaging and our overall engagement and they were all very successful. I never thought social media would be impactful in our community but it has proven to be and exceeded our expectations. The “how” for us is our kauhau ora, how we conduct ourselves and we will never change that. Don’t let the system sort out your health problems, we can give you the tools and support”.