A health improvement practitioner is a registered health practitioner. This is a new role to provide more support for you at the same place you see your doctor.
WHO IS A HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PRACTITIONER?
A health improvement practitioner is part of a general practice team. They work with patients to achieve goals by providing support and follow-up for issues related to mental health.
WHAT CAN A HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PRACTITIONER HELP WITH?
A health improvement practitioner can see people of all ages and at all stages of their lives and help with any type of issue related to behaviour change or mental wellbeing.
A health improvement practitioner can see people immediately when they are in the GP clinic to provide support. Your GP or doctor may refer you to a health improvement practitioner when you are in a GP clinic and you can usually see them immediately.
A typical consultation with a health improvement practitioner will take about 30 minutes and is usually focused on evidence-based brief interventions.
A health improvement practitioner can also educate other team members and help to develop pathways and protocols around mental wellbeing and addiction support.
WHERE DOES A HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PRACTITIONER WORK?
As a health improvement practitioner is part of the general practice team, they usually work in a GP clinic.
Being based in a general practice, there are no barriers as to who can see them, as long as you are enrolled in the practice. Appointments are available every day. Half of the day is for booked appointments and half is for unbooked appointments to allow for same-day referrals.
WHAT TRAINING DOES A HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PRACTITIONER HAVE?
A health improvement practitioner will need to complete specialist training in the Te Tumu Waiora primary mental health model – a new model of mental health and addictions care and support in general practice. This new mental health model aims to provide all New Zealanders experiencing mental distress or addictions challenges with access to convenient, high quality, integrated and person-centred care and support.
