PATIENT INFO: Videos help patients navigate COVID in the community

“Be strong, accept the challenge, whānau, fight the fight, you can do this”

Consumer health website Health Navigator is rolling out a series of animated videos to help people look after themselves and others with COVID-19.

The need for easy-to-understand resources for people managing at home with COVID-19, and for those having to go to hospital, was identified in talks with the Ministry of Health late last year, says Auckland specialist GP and Health Navigator CEO Janine Bycroft.

After promoting the initial web resources, Health Navigator collaborated with Northland DHB to make a series of video animations, and with the Health Care Home Collaborative to make a much-needed How to use a pulse oximeter video, according to a written statement.

Wellington production company Māori Sidesteps Collective Ltd took on the production – all done when Auckland was in lockdown. This was not straightforward, as the job came with detailed instructions on what was and was not acceptable, right down to the food that was being talked about or shown, being communicated via Zoom meetings, says Dr Bycroft.

The ministry is now helping with scripting for the series and discussing options for further topics.

The name of the series - Aotearoa e te toa! - was gifted by Health Navigator’s cultural advisers Merle Samuels and Karōria Johns.

It loosely means “be strong, accept the challenge, whānau, fight the fight, you can do this”.

The videos provide a useful resource for GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other community health providers to share with their patients and customers.

Health Navigator has pages covering the following range of topics, written for health consumers

Health care during COVID-19

https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/c/covid-19-health-care-during-covid-19/

COVID-19 care package

https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/c/covid-19-care-package/