Health and Rehabilitation : the Cloak of Wellness

Running head: Health and rehabilitation
Health and rehabilitation
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

Health and rehabilitation1
Introduction
He Korowai Oranga means “the cloak of wellness”. It is actually a Maori health strategy,
that aims to develop and develop nurture Maori people both physically and spirituality. It
provides a comprehensive framework to guide the government along with the health and
disability sector for achieving the best health outcome for the Maori community. This paper aims
to discuss about the aims and the objectives of the Maori health strategy, discuss the target group
and the rationale for electing this target group for the reform (Came et al., 2016). This will be
again followed by the compliance of the Maori health strategy to the New Zealand health
strategy. Finally, it will describe one health initiative that has been implemented for supporting
the achievement of the strategy and the methods by which the chosen pathway assists improved
health outcome for the Maori group.
Discussion
Aims
The primary aim for the Maori Health strategy is to “Whanau ora”, that is to promote
health and wellbeing for the Maori communities. In Maori society, family is the prime source of
bonding and strength. It signifies security, safety and bonding. Sound health for a Maori
individual depends upon the overall health and the wellbeing of their extended family members.
The strategy aims to set a directive for the development of Maori health and by remaining
committed to the Treaty of Watangi (Ministry of Health, 2014). The next aim would be to
develop include the Whanau members (including the ones with disability) to participate in Maori
and a wider New Zealand society. Another important aim is to achieve Wai ora, which means the

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ambience where all the Maori are residing are suitable to live. This includes proper infrastructure
of the housing, sanitation and availability of potable water, clean neighbourhood, free from
communicable diseases, safety for children, women and elderly population. Another aim of the
strategy was to include Maori workers at all the sectors in the decision making process, planning
and implementation of health and disability care strategies. The He Korowai Oranga strategy
also helps to set direction for the Maori health in other services like the primary health care
strategy and the Health of Older people strategy and Public health strategy (Ministry of Health,
2014).
Target population and rationale for selecting the target population
The main target population for this strategy is the Maori population, who had originated
with the settlers from the Eastern Polynesia, who had arrived in New Zealand between 1320 and
1350. This population of people has always been deprived of the basic amenities of life and are
also likely to receive unequal health care facilities in comparison to the non- Maori. It has been
stated by several reports, that Maori Whanau have a poor health status, suffers from both
educational, occupational and income status, than the non-Maoris. Hence it was a challenge to
address the reasons of the inequality. One of the important reason behind the Maori Health
strategy is to include Maori people in the workforce of the health care sector. Considering the
health inequality faced by the Maori community, it is a necessity that the policy makers should
work together with the hapu, iwi and Maori communities for developing strategies for the
development of appropriate health care services (Ministry of Health, 2018).