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Healthy Homes

New Zealand has very high rates of asthma and respiratory infections – with children, the elderly and those on lower incomes worse off.

Toi Te Ora Public Health Service is developing strategies to support people in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes Districts keep their homes warm, dry, healthy and safe. See our Housing and Health Report.

There is growing recognition that good quality affordable housing is an essential component of healthy communities. Structure, location, condition and suitability of housing impact directly on the health of the household, while other factors impact indirectly.

Affordability and availability of housing are issues experienced by vulnerable households such as those on low incomes or from low socio-economic groups, for example single parents, children and the elderly already predisposed to poor health conditions.

Health Homes - Injury Prevention e-toolkit

Given their explorative stage of development, children aged 0-5 years have been identified as an "at risk" group for unintentional injury in the home. The Injury Prevention e-toolkit has been designed to prevent the large number of young people who die or are seriously injured each year from fals, hot water burns and poisonings.

What is the injury prevention e-toolkit?

The injury prevention e-toolkit is a technical tool that aims to compliment the injury prevention efforts of community providers who work with families of young children. In essence, it structures the delivery of injury prevention information and in-home support by providing community workers with a step-by-step guide for carrying out injury prevention with families in their own home environment.

Healthy Homes Fact Sheets

Housing is widely acknowledged as a determinant of health. Cold and damp housing, housing affordability, substandard housing and crowding all contribute to the health of our communities.

Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service has paid particular attention to healthy homes in recent months and has developed three easy-to-read fact sheets. The fact sheets contain tips, and suggestions for improving the quality of home environments, how to control mould in homes and tips for improving indoor air quality.

Health Homes Newsletter

Healthy Homes is a bi-annual newsletter provided by Toi Te Ora – Public health Service’s Our Community programme. The Our Community programme aims to support and resource organisations and communities who take action to improve health outcomes for individuals, and families/whanau in the home. Topics in the fist issue are:

Healthy Homes - Kawerau Home Health for Preshoolers Project

Injuries that happen in the home environment are the leading cause of unintentional death and hospitalisation for children aged 0 to 4 years.

In response to this issue, Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service (Toi Te Ora) in partnership with Safe Kawerau Kids Injury Prevention Project and the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society (Plunket), initiated a second home visitation project titled the Kawerau Home Health for Preschoolers Project.

This project concentrated on two injury prevention issues; safe play in the home and child car restraint safety.

The project report below evaluates whether the Kawerau Home Health for Preschoolers Project was successful at increasing parental knowledge and behaviour in terms of engaging and supervising children in play activities, and correctly installing and using child car restraints.

It also identifies those aspects of the Kawerau Home Health initiative that enhanced project implementation, and aspects that could be improved.

Results from the project reveal increases and improvements in both parental knowledge and behaviour in both injury categories. Home visits by trained health workers providing education and practical assistance, could effectively be considered a viable approach for encouraging parents to engage and supervise preschool children during play, and correctly install and use child car restraints.

For more information, check out the resources below:

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