KPI Forum brings sector together

On 13 March, more than 160 people from across the mental health and addiction sector gathered in Ōtautahi Christchurch for the National KPI Benchmarking Forum.

The event was the second in-person benchmarking forum hosted by Te Pou after a two-year Covid-19 hiatus.

Minister for Mental Health, the Honourable Matt Doocey, opened the event by reminding everyone that data was vitally important, helping to guide robust decision-making.

“What we need is good data that informs decisions and helps us make evidence-based decisions as well,” he said.

“The process means that mental health services can compare their practises and outcomes against best practise, make informed decisions for quality improvement and track progress. This promotes a culture of continuous learning and encourages health services to stay up to date with the latest in best practise developments in service delivery.”

Minister Doocey acknowledged that everyone at the Forum was striving for better outcomes for both tāngata whai ora and the mental health and addictions sector itself.

“We quite often don't land it in the first time or even the 10th time, but it's the strive for continuous improvement and ensuring that we are aiming for this practise, which I know is exactly what brings you to the room this morning.”

A vision for the future

The Forum’s theme, 'benchmarking for a stronger mental health and addiction ecosystem', encouraged attendees to imagine a future mental health and addiction ecosystem that provided the appropriate care at the appropriate time in the appropriate way.

Richard Woodcock, Manager of Data, Information and Research at Te Pou, said that the KPI Forum was a great opportunity for the sector to meet in person, learn and share knowledge.

“It was a great day, and our thanks goes out to everyone who attended and contributed,” he said. “The KPI Programme’s benchmarking forums are important because they enable the mental health and addiction workforce to collaborate, network, learn from each other, be inspired, and promote innovation happening within their services.”

Three keynote speakers inspired and informed attendees throughout the morning. Benchmarking sessions in the afternoon prompted valuable discussions.

Indigenous innovation

The first keynote speakers, Rebecca Davis and Cheyenne Potaka-Osborne from Whaiora Whānau Healthy Families at Te Oranganui Trust, spoke about their collective impact mahi.

Their kōrero, titled 'Transformational change: Indigenous innovation, data, lived experience, and collective impact for systems transformation' got attendees thinking about how to incorporate te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori into their services for the benefit of everyone.

Their kaupapa brings together the voices of both social service agencies (including the New Zealand Police, Ministry of Social Development, Oranga Tamariki and Te Whatu Ora), and the people who access these services (tāngata whai ora and whānau) to contribute to solutions and identify interventions that might prevent the need for access in the future.

A key takeaway from this presentation was allowing for the sharing of expertise and resources would make a system-wide solution more cost-effective and easier to co-create.

“Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi - with your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive” - whakatauki

Lived experience insights

Hannah Komatsu-Whittaker, Programme Director Lived Experience at Manatū Hauora, the Ministry of Health, talked about co-creating a learning together system using the lived and living experience of people of the mental health ‘care, treatment, response’ system as well as the wider mental wellbeing system.

Her talk was a highlight for many attendees. Hannah challenged everyone at the Forum to think more broadly about the experience of distress in the wider mental wellbeing system, not just within services people are currently accessing.

The lived and living experience contribution around embodied knowing, detail of experience, knowledge, expertise, and wisdom inform the actions required to improve future experiences, moving us to a mental wellbeing learning together system.

Telling compelling data stories

Dr Peter Carswell from Synergia spoke about the importance of storytelling for the mental health and addition sector, and how we can demonstrate the impact of our mahi by connecting the dots for our stakeholders, funders and audiences through communications and storytelling.

It got all of us thinking about how we can be more proactive in this space.

Thank you

A huge thank you to everyone who attended from across the motu, and who contributed to making the National KPI Benchmarking Forum a success!

The KPI Programme team would especially like to acknowledge Te Pou cultural lead Kahurangi Fergusson-Tibble and Ngāi Tūāhuriri mana whenua for their warm welcome.

Thank you also to our wonderful keynote speakers Rebecca, Cheyenne, Hannah and Peter for sharing their knowledge and inspiring us to do better.

And of course, our MC Jase Te Patu, who seems like part of the KPI Programme whānau after three years supporting our national benchmarking forums.

We look forward to connecting with you again in the future!

Any further comments, feedback and ideas about the 2024 National KPI Benchmarking Forum or future events can be sent to info@mhakpi.health.nz