During the last week of August, many of the Healthy Families Ōtautahi (HFŌ) team joined a group of professionals from the health sector, to collaborate in a brainstorming session, with the aim of helping the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) in their quest for Alcohol harm reduction.  

With 22% of all ACC claims citing alcohol as a factor, it was important to have a broad representation in the room; from University of Canterbury, He Waka Tapu and Public Health, all joining with ACC and Healthy Families Ōtautahi.

The session was co-lead by HFŌ Lead Systems Innovator, Maria Smolar, and ACC’s Injury Prevention Partner for the region, Wendi Stewart. Those attending were all aware of the ongoing ‘Have a Hmmmmm’ national marketing campaign, so the aim of this hour-and-a-half session was to come up with ideas for local Waitaha Canterbury initiatives for the prevention of alcohol harm.

Within the Healthy Families Ōtautahi team, the approach is to work with, and empower, local leadership, to shape initiatives that are focused on chronic disease prevention. Maria Smolar stated that “for us, collaborating /co designing with/ facilitating a design workshop with ACC provided a great opportunity to generate ideas and solutions that are deeply rooted in local context and the needs of our communities.”

“By harnessing collective insights, we were able to fuse creativity and practicality, ensuring that our ideas resonate authentically with the community we aim to serve.”

Additionally, Wendi added “it was of huge benefit having Maria support facilitation and get creativity started with the group. It was also great to have Healthy Families Ōtautahi there participating as they have a good understanding of alcohol harm and desire to reduce it.”

The workshop was just the beginning with follow-up planned for the coming months, all with the hope that local, onsite, engagement activations can be developed and planned for later in 2023 and 2024.

Article added: Friday 01 September 2023