Community Support Roles

As a community health support worker, you may work in various roles in many organisations. Using a person-centred approach, you will have a team of people you work alongside to meet your clients' needs.

Here are some example support worker roles:

• whānau support worker: helping individuals and their children in their homes, offering advice to empower them to take responsibility for their health and the wellbeing of their whānau.
• health and wellbeing coach: helping clients set and achieve health goals, improve their physical and mental wellbeing, and manage stress and chronic conditions.
• kaiāwhina: a community health worker who uses tikanga and Māori models of health to work collaboratively with whānau.
• community support worker: offering assistance to individuals with disabilities to help them develop essential life skills or assisting community members in accessing resources that reconnect them to their communities.
• disability support worker: helping people with health problems or disabilities to carry out daily tasks, such as housework, and be as independent as possible.
• support for primary care clinicians: (i.e., in a medical practice) working alongside clinicians supporting individuals in the community following surgery or a medical event.

Common responsibilities

Common responsibilities for community support workers include:

• Daily living assistance: Supporting individuals in organising and completing tasks related to cooking, household chores, and daily routines.
• Medical support: Providing support for attending medical appointments, including visits to general practitioners and specialists.
• Promoting community engagement: Assisting individuals in pursuing their interests, participating in local activities, and fostering connections within the community.
• Advocacy: Advocating (speaking for) for the people you support to ensure their needs and preferences are understood and respected.
• Cultural competence: Delivering culturally sensitive care in a way that is respectful of diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
• Financial support: Assisting individuals with budgeting and managing their finances.
• Independent living skills: Helping individuals develop and maintain skills necessary for independent daily living.
• Communication and collaboration: Providing comprehensive reporting, handovers, and documentation while liaising with other healthcare professionals.
• Personal plan implementation: Implementing personal plans, monitoring progress, and providing feedback to enhance the wellbeing of those under your care.

The six senses of support work

People need a sense of belonging, fulfilment, and purpose. The table below highlights the environment and practices needed to achieve the following senses for both tangata and those in support roles.

	Tangata needing support	Support worker
A sense of security	Feeling safe and free from threat, pain, or discomfort. It also means living as independently as they are able.	Being free from physical threat or censure, having secure work conditions, and working within a supportive culture.
A sense of continuity	Having their life history, life experiences, and knowledge of the past recognised.	Having a positive experience of working with the people they are supporting, exposure to good role models, and sound care and support environments.
A sense of belonging	Having opportunities to form meaningful social interactions and relationships, and to feel part of a group or community as desired.	Feeling part of a team with a recognised contribution.
A sense of purpose	Having opportunities to engage in purposeful activity and to be able to achieve goals and challenging pursuits.	Having a clear set of goals.
A sense of fulfilment	Having opportunities to meet meaningful and valued goals and to feel satisfied with their efforts. It also means having their strengths acknowledged and valued.	Being able to provide quality care and feeling satisfied with their efforts.
A sense of significance	Feeling valued as people of worth and that they ‘matter’.	Feeling like the type of support work they do is valued and important and that their work and efforts matter.

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New Zealand has a wide range of organisations that provide care and support. Many will support only a subsection of the community, e.g. children or older people. Others offer support services to a wide range of clients. Each support organisation's service philosophy defines the models and approaches used in health and wellbeing settings.

The following are examples of organisations that employ community health support workers.

Well Child Tamariki Ora

Well Child Tamariki Ora services help whānau to improve and protect their tamariki/children’s health. The Well Child Tamariki Ora programmes provide a package of health services available to whānau for children from birth to 5 years.

These include home visits that cover the following:

• child growth and development
• family health and wellbeing
• immunisation information
• oral health checks
• early childhood education
• vision and hearing
• health and development checks for learning well at school

Click for more information: Well Child Tamariki Ora visits

Plunket Whānau Āwhina

Plunket provides a range of free services aimed at improving the development, health, and wellbeing of children under five. These services include health and development check-ups, parenting and antenatal education, and valuable support resources.

Plunket has a free parent helpline called PlunketLine and a Family Start programme that provides support and guidance from a child-centred, strengths-based approach to improve health, education, and welfare outcomes.

Click for more information: Whānau Āwhina Plunket

Horizons Trust

Horizons Trust supports tangata with intellectual disabilities by providing positive and fun activities in a safe environment. Activities include learning new skills like cooking, visiting new places, and meeting new people.

Click for more information: Horizons Trust

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army has centres around Aotearoa New Zealand that provide individuals and whānau with food parcels, budgeting advice, life skills, parenting courses, social work, youth development, and transitional housing.

Click for more information: Salvation Army

Nurse Maude

Nurse Maude provides medication support, personal care, and domestic assistance to tangata in their homes. The services are available for anyone recovering at home from an accident or surgery, those who have been assessed as needing support, and those with a life-limiting illness. They also offer a palliative care service for tangata with life-limiting illnesses and specialty clinics in the community to assist with medical matters like diabetes management and wound care.

Click for more information: Nurse Maude

Emerge Aotearoa

Emerge Aotearoa is a committed Tangata Tiriti organisation. It is a non-profit provider of mental health, addiction, disability, correction services, wellbeing, and housing services across New Zealand. The core values of the organisation are based on the Māori concepts of Whakawhanaunga, Manaakitanga, Ako and Whakamana.

Click for more information: Emerge Aotearoa

Watch: Ray (2.28)

Watch the clip below about a Pacific community support worker who works for Emerge Aotearoa and complete the activity that follows.

Penina Trust

Penina Trust is a Pacific-led NGO (non-government organisation), with an emphasis on Faa Pasefika – the Pacific Way. They work closely with the individual, their wider whānau/aiga and community, and other social services.

As part of their services, they offer a range of mental health programs for people in residential care and in the community. They also provide transitional housing and social housing.

Click for more information: Penina.org.nz

Healthcare NZ

HealthCare NZ has been envisioning a return of healthcare services to people's homes since 1988, recognising the sense of belonging and comfort that a home represents. They serve thousands of New Zealanders nationwide through their extensive home and community support services, fostering partnerships with local iwi, government, and community health organisations while upholding the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Click for more information: Healthcarenz

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