June 12, 2024
Māori face helps heart recovery
A major study into heart health has found the care received by Māori and Pacific people didn’t line up with Māori values.
Dr Karen Brewer says a part of a wider project looking at heart health care her team interviewed Maori men over 30 for men and Maori women over 40, which is when they are eligible for a free heart check, as well as people who have experienced heart failure.
Maori did not see themselves reflected in the health care system
“One young woman said ‘there’s nop one like me there.’ She was young, she was Maori, she looked around and tthere was a whole lot of old white pakeha in the ward with her. The doctors, the nurses, the people who were caring for her were not Maori. Patients or whanau who did have a Maori doctor or a Maori nurse, these kaimahi could bridge the gap into their world,” Dr Brewer says.