We support heart health as people living with mental health challenges face a higher risk of early death, with heart disease being a major cause. By encouraging small steps, we can help change this statistic and make a big difference for the wellbeing of our kaimahi, tāngata whai ora, taiohi, and whānau.
Here are some helpful ideas to support the health of your heart for you and your whānau:
- Encourage whānau to eat nourishing kai, choose water, and move daily. Set shared goals, like walking together or cooking healthy meals.
- Start conversations about what a healthy heart means to your whānau. What motivates them? Is it more energy, time with tamariki, improved mental wellbeing?
- Acknowledge stress and its impact. High stress and blood pressure strain the heart. Take breaks, rest, and unwind through calm activities, deep breathing, time in nature, or connecting with friends and whānau. Reducing stress supports a healthier body and mind.
- Reach out for help. Heart health is a shared journey. If you, or someone you support, wants to take the next step, check out reliable tools and resources from the Heart Foundation NZ.
Helpful resources
We believe together we can achieve a smokefree Aotearoa and whānau can play an important role in this. Here’s some helpful ideas on how you can support your loved one to stop smoking or vaping.
Let everyone know that your whare is smokefree. Smokefree environments are great for helping manage temptations. You may also want to consider displaying a smokefree sign to remind visitors.
When speaking to your loved one about their smoking or vaping:
- Ask why they want to cut down or quit smoking or vaping. This helps to remind them when quitting becomes tough.
- Provide encouragement. Keep it positive and notice achievements.
- Help find ways to cope or distract if they’re struggling with cravings. Find fun things to do to help replace old habits.
- Ask how you can best support them during this journey.
- Reach out to our kaimahi or a smokefree service in your region for advice when you need to.
Helpful resources
Support for whānau on supporting taiohi to quit vaping; Supporting whānau and friends to quit;
How do whānau become smokefree?
Recipes to support your wellbeing
We believe nutrition and what you eat plays a key part in being both physically and mentally well. Check out our ‘Wholesome Cookbook’ for nutritious easy to make meals that help to support your wellbeing. It’s also been developed to work with your budget.
To support tāngata whai ora and taiohi with gut health problems we’ve included a range of dairy and gluten free recipes. There’s also plant based recipes you can add poultry or other meats to if you wish.
It’s free! Read below or click the button to download.
Helpful links
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team supporting your whanau member.
We’ve created a list of organisations you can access to ……
You can click on the logos below to go to their website to find out more.
