Ara Manawa Retrospective 2022
“Ara Manawa has two components; ‘Ara’ to create, find, or forge a path. Think of a whale finding its way through the ocean or a bird navigating to a destination. ‘Manawa’ means heartbeat, capturing intelligence, or a psychic knowing. Thereby reflecting the creativity of the team.”
We created Ara Manawa in 2018. The name was gifted by Dame Naida Glavish with the above reflection on our team purpose. We hold human centred design and co-design capability for Te Toka Tumai, Auckland DHB. We hold these methods lightly, as we need to adjust and adapt the ways in which we lift health outcomes.
There are many ways of looking at how we do things, and how we can change.
In addition to design capability, Ara Manawa was established to partner and collaborate. We can all contribute to better health outcomes, but finding the time or know how is hard. Ara Manawa has fostered relationships to support many initiatives. We’re working on our internal processes to support greater collaboration, to support improved translational research, and enable more innovation in the right strategic areas.
Ara Manawa is uniquely placed to understand the context of the staff, stuff, systems, and spaces that go into healthcare delivery.
Our contributions from inside the hospital range from single devices, to how we communicate standard procedure change, to how we improve environments.
In July this year, as the eco system simplifies and strengthens, through the replacement of District Health Boards with Health NZ and the Māori Health Authority. We hope for richer collaboration across the country. We will continue to place patients, whānau, and staff at the centre of what we do, and why we do it.