Waikids - Child and Youth Health projects

Waikids – Child and Youth Health projects has been providing a high level project management service for the child and youth health sector for the past 10 years. First established in 1997, the service has been acknowledged with several awards for service improvement. Waikids – Child and Youth Health programmes, concentrate on initiative short term projects that improve the quality and build on the interface between secondary and primary health services throughout the Waikato district. They provide a population approach with innovative models across the age spectrum from 0 – 24 years. To ensure effective and timely outcomes the projects work towards the following objectives: integration and enabling integrated workforce development that also underpins the Model of Care short-term project development that can be moved on in sustainable ways (Waikids is not a service provider but an initiative developer) child and youth advocacy and innovative approaches providing relationship development, maintenance and integration across settings and sectors an active commitment to implementing the Toward Māori Health Gain organisational framework.

The health status of children and young people in Waikato DHB - 2008 A Portrait of HealthKey Results of the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey from the Ministry of Health Indicator Handbook Monitoring the health of New Zealand children and young people

The team consists of three experienced people; programme manager, project manager and community paediatrician. The team provides strategic knowledge and experience to child and youth programmes by using Waikato District Health Board approved project methodologies.  

Projects for 2009 - 2010

Child and Youth programmes	Priority	Project objectives
Chronic and long term conditions
Strategy for chronic conditions	High	Develop a five year strategic plan for child and young people with chronic conditions. The strategy will provide understanding of the population needs, planned and coordinated actions to address the needs, support for collaborative and comprehensive funding proposals.
Youth Transition with chronic conditions including mental health	High	Develop and implement a model of care for transitioning youth with chronic conditions to adult services. The objectives will improve health outcomes for chronically ill young people, greater understanding of the needs for this population, and enhanced quality of service delivery.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service	High	Improve the referral pathways between secondary and primary services in the Hauraki and South Waikato clusters. The project will address better integration of secondary and primary services, improved access to support and appropriate treatment.
Secondary healthcare programme
Emergency Department/Kidsplace patient flow	High	To understand the journeys from (pre)arrival to discharge in the current Emergency Department/Kidsplace and provide solutions to any identified patient flow disconnect.
ED Six bedded short stay unit	High	This project is committed to exploring the manner in which the paediatric six – bedded short stay facility coordinates with the Kidsplace Emergency Department streaming system.
Inpatient guidelines	Low	This project is committed to establishing best practice standards of inpatient care guidelines for children and adolescents regardless of their admission location
Review of data from outpatient clinics	Medium	This project will provide information on who, what and how people are attending outpatient clinics. This data will better inform both secondary and primary care in future planning.
Child health programme
Child Health Forums	Medium	Initiated by the Y1 champion group. The child forums will be held throughout Waikato district to address systems issues with the transfer of care from one service to another, find solutions for transient children and high need families/whanau.
Information and resources
Waikato District Health Board web page	Low	The development of easy to read and informative information will be developed and applied to the Health Waikato webpage. The project is to support improved access to services, increased community, professional and organisational knowledge of services in their area and identifying gaps in areas of services.
Web Health	Low	The development of easy to read and informative information will be developed and applied to Web Health.  The project is to support improved access to services, increased community, professional and organisational knowledge of services in their area and identifying gaps in areas of services.

Community paediatrician activity (inclusive of community child health advanced trainee/fellow)	Priority	Clinical expertise and research
Chronic conditions	High	Provide clinical expertise on the project.
Gastro and asthma guidelines review	Medium	Provide paediatric advice with the Primary Health Organisation review of the guidelines.
Representation on Y1 Champion group (Y1 Champion group focuses on initiatives in the first year of life)	Low	Community paediatrician to be involved in strategic leadership of Y1 initiatives.
Representation on child and youth mortality review group	Low	Liaison paediatrician, clinical advisor, and duty chairperson

       
 

Awards/achievements

• 2006 - Best Health Awards - Collaborative winner

  Project Energize – This award recognises and rewards outstanding examples of collaboration - within our health services, across primary and secondary health sectors, and intersectorally – that have contributed to service improvements or better health outcomes.
  
  

• 2004 - Clinical Service Delivery Excellence - Finalist

  Management of acute asthma in children – This category recognises initiatives that have improved the delivery of services to patients / clients e.g. changed timing or means of service delivery. These initiatives focus on making services more accessible and /or acceptable to patients / clients.
  
  

• 2000 - KPMG Innovation Award - Finalist - Crown Entity

  Recognising innovation in the public sector - The award was judged on innovation, effectiveness, significance of benefits and transferability of systems and processes to the other public sector organisation
  

Contact us           

Waikids, Child and Youth Health
218a Pembroke Street
Private Bag 3200
Waikato Hospital
Hamilton 3240
Phone: (07) 839 8899 ext 96582, ext 96659
Cellphone: 021 759 639