A Pacific health leader hopes that people will tune into a series of webinars discussing the Covid-19 strategies and responses from various health organisations who supported the Pacific community during the pandemic.
Director of Pacific Health at the Ministry of Health, Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone, will be one of four guest speakers in the first webinar this Friday 6 November and cautions, that despite the country enjoying its current freedom from lockdown restrictions, there still needs to be a degree of national vigilance around Covid-19.
“It’s a challenge because when you continue to talk about the health messages, there can be a level of communication fatigue as we get more confident of how we are engaging with each other and we tend to let our guard down.
When that second outbreak hit and the root of it was in the Pacific community, everyone pulled together and ramped up the messaging.
It’s a fine balance between making sure that we get the consistent messaging out there but not in a way that people become so fatigued that they can’t hear it anymore versus the ability to amplify the message to avoid another outbreak.”
The three webinars will run throughout November and are co-hosted by the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA), the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine and the University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
PMA president, Dr Kiki Maoate, ONZM, FRACS and PMA senior member Dr Colin Tukuitonga, DSM, MPH, FAFPHM, FRNZCGP will be facilitating the discussions.
Along with Clifford-Lidstone, the other guest speakers for the first webinar include Professor Michael Baker of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine and Otago University, Meg Poutasi of the Auckland District Health Board and Debbie Sorensen, CEO of PMA and Pasifika Futures.
“We’ve got some wonderful experts who have played an amazing role in the Pacific response and they have great stories to tell in terms of what we have been able to co-ordinate, leverage and do in order to protect Pacific communities during Covid-19.
What we will portray is how we broke down traditional barriers and focused on reducing the harm of Covid-19 within our communities.
This discussion is valuable for our community because it gives them an understanding of the hard work behind the scenes to protect their families and keep them safe.”
The first Webinar in the series is this Friday 6 November 2020 from 1pm – 3pm.
To join this event please see link here which includes zoom link details.
Follow the Facebook event here.
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