Tuakau

A team of long standing Plunket people, lead by Tuakau’s Plunket Nurse Judi Gray, won the Innovation Award in 2008.

Judy is a 25 year Plunket veteran whose compassion, care and steel-strong determination to help parents and their babies are well-known in the area. Judi’s team seized the opportunity to trial a new concept called Well Child to Well Family, which was developed with and funded by Ministry of Social Development, building on the Ministry of Health Well Child framework. They could see it would help give their community more of the ‘glue’ they believed it needed.

With one day a week dedicated to her Well Child to Well Family work, Judi supported and guided parents, to make conscious decisions around their baby’s well-being but also for their own well-being, their ongoing education, their children’s education, their dental health and their future within their family and community. Better follow-through with local doctors, dental nurses, immunisation services, early childhood educators and other community health providers enabled the Tuakau Plunket team to help young families achieve better outcomes.