Mana Ake provides early intervention to promote wellbeing and mental health support for our primary and intermediate aged tamariki across Te Tai Tokerau. The aim is to help enhance resilience, wairua, and mana so tamariki are ‘stronger for tomorrow’.

A short introduction that will tell you what you need for your telehealth appointment.

Mana Ake provides a new approach to delivering additional mental health support for children in primary and intermediate schools across the Te Tai Tokerau region. Mana Ake seeks to provide holistic support through:

• Direct support to children experiencing social, emotional, or behavioural challenges
• Clarification of local support pathways, making it easier for schools, teachers, and whānau to access support when and where they need it
• Support for schools to make improvements to the school environment using whole-of-school and classroom wellbeing programmes and wellbeing promotion.
• Service sector improvements by providing greater collaboration across Health, Education, and social sector partners in the provision of support.

Mana Ake is strongly aligned with the recommendations made in He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction (He Ara Oranga) to better equip teachers, schools, and communities to respond to the wellbeing needs of Tamariki, to support Tamariki to build resilience and coping strategies, and to increase access to early intervention supports.

MANA AKE acknowledges a range of meanings. The term "Mana" has a wide range of meanings, including prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, and charisma. Using the term "Ake” intensifies those meanings and implies original, indigenous, own, real, very own, personal, personally –- to emphasise to whom something belongs or for whom something is intended.

This mana-enhancing term is therefore applicable with the Mana Ake by line, ‘Stronger For Tomorrow’.

Mana Ake is a term used in the Te Wheke model developed by Dr Rangimarie Rose Pere in 1982. Mana Ake is described as the unique identity of individuals and family.

Children aged 5-12 (school year levels 1-8) in schools across Te Tai Tokerau. The service also provides integrated support to whānau, teachers, and schools.

Yes, services will be integrated with other support services and provide holistic support. This includes:

• Integration with current education and health initiatives in schools
• Integration within internal school student support systems such as learning support
• Clear links with existing health and social services, including community-based primary and mental health and addiction services and specialist mental health and addiction services
• Seamless connections for whānau to other relevant NGOs, cultural, social and health supports, primary care, and secondary and tertiary services as and when needed.

Yes, reducing barriers to access for whānau is critical. Methods for doing this include having a range of support and engagement options, no cost, and flexible hours and services. The range of support options for whānau could include (but is not limited to):

• Support, advice, and resources for caregivers and whanau
• Drop-in sessions
• Information and community events
• Resources on the service website
• Parenting skills development

Yes, we will connect schools and teachers with additional resources that enhance wellbeing.

Yes, we will ensure that the service is responsive to the needs of different communities, including rural communities.

Yes, we will ensure that the service is responsive to the needs of different communities, particularly Māori and Pasifika.

The Service to be designed through this co-design process will include (but is not limited to) the following components:

• Service sector improvements through strengthening collaboration across Health, Education, and social sector partners in the provision of support
• Evidence-informed direct support, either one-on-one or in groups, to tamariki experiencing social, emotional, or behavioural challenges who do not meet the requirement for other specialist services, for example infant child and youth mental health services (ICAMHS) or special education services, including: culturally appropriate and responsive interventions or systems for ensuring whānau involvement and participation, including mechanisms for engaging with whānau with complex needs
• The development of clear and appropriate referral pathways for tamariki and their whānau who require formalised support for their mental or physical health, behavioural or learning needs, across primary and specialist level health, education and social services
• Resources for teachers that provide evidence-informed information regarding recognising and responding to a child with mental or physical health, behavioural, or learning needs
• Whole-of-class and whole-of-school evidence-informed mental wellbeing promotion programmes

We plan to make the initiative available to all 141 schools across Te Tai Tokerau that have year level 1-8 students attending.

Te Whatu Ora Te Tai Tokerau have partnered with seven community and iwi organisations who will employ the Mana Ake kaimahi who will be based within schools. Our community partners have been chosen because of the range of supports that they already offer within the communities including existing school-based services.

Our Community Providers along with the Te Whatu Ora team will be working together to ensure that services are provided in a consistent way across Te Tai Tokerau.

To ensure additional resources are put in place to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of our tamariki across Te Tai Tokerau so that they are stronger for tomorrow.

Mana Ake is funded through Vote Health and Vote Education. This is the first time a jointly-funded approach such as this has been taken and shows  a true cross-government approach. The Mana Ake contract for Te Tai Tokerau sits within Te Whatu Ora (formerly Northland District Health Board). However, Mana Ake is a collaborative project between Te Whatu Ora, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, working with schools, Iwi and local NGOs. The collaboration highlights not only the importance of the work, but the need for joined-up approaches when it comes to wellbeing and mental health support for tamariki and whānau.

In the latter part of 2021, Mana Ake undertook a co-design process alongside our Te Tai Tokerau communities and stakeholders to help design the service for Te Tai Tokerau. More information about this process can be found on our Background page.

Mana Ake will be taking a phased approach to implementation with schools across Te Tai Tokerau throughout the 2023 and 2024 school years. Schools and regions with the highest deprivation and equity needs have been prioritised for initial implementation, with all year 1-8 schools coming online for the service by the end of 2024.