Whakatau Mai | The Wellbeing Sessions
Our wellbeing sessions are now available on YouTube:
Want to know more?
Whakatau Mai | The Wellbeing Sessions, by Changing Minds was part of the government’s response to COVID-19, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Health. These sessions were designed to help you access more support online, and safely connect with our Whakatau Mai whānau from wherever you are in the country.
We offered a wide range of free and online wellbeing sessions in real-time, helping to safely support your wellbeing from the comfort of your own space. These holistic sessions included topics such as yoga and fitness, art and journaling, meditation and mindfulness, plus various support groups, including one for LGBTQIA+.
We’ve now archived these sessions for anyone who wants to learn something new, remembering the new connections and support we found with likeminded people as we navigated our way together through the initial challenges of COVID-19.
Me kōrero kia ora ai tātou – Let us connect so we may all find wellbeing.
Whakatau Mai received additional ‘digital enablement’ support
The Ministry of Health funded an extension of our wellbeing programme until November 2021. As part of the Government’s Recovery Package, Changing Minds continued to offer up to nine free online community sessions through Whakatau Mai each week, as the impacts of COVID-19 continued to be felt. From November 2021 to March 2022, the Auckland Health District Board (ADHB) and Waitematā District Health Board (WDHB) provided funding for digital enablement. After this we migrated the Whakatau Mai sessions to our YouTube channel.
“The continued support of Whakatau Mai sessions meant that we could keep nurturing a space that provided social connections, wellbeing activities and information for our communities,” says Taimi Allan, then CEO of Changing Minds. “Being a Lived Experience-led programme, our facilitators understood what guests may be facing and feeling at that time. We were grateful for the digital enablement support during the different waves of COVID-19, as it meant we were able to build some wellbeing resources from the programme to be accessed after the real-time sessions ended.”
Guests consistently shared how much they enjoyed the sessions being led by facilitators and crew who were open about having Lived Experience. Feedback was positive throughout the project, with average results from survey respondents saying:
100% said they felt safe in the session.
100% found the session useful.
97.5% felt better after the session.
95% would recommend attending a session to others.
95% felt more connected and less isolated as a result of attending.
92.55% of survey respondents rated the sessions as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent.’
“I think it's difficult for others who have not experienced mental distress to understand what it's truly like to struggle with it. Knowing that I'm talking to people who have been or are on the same journey as I am makes me feel truly heard and understood,” shared one Whakatau Mai guest in a survey.
In all, over 990 live wellbeing sessions were delivered during the pandemic, and we’re pleased to be able to offer them now, as an ongoing resource.
On behalf of Changing Minds and our guests, we want to thank Auckland Health District Board and Waitematā District Health Board for supporting Whakatau Mai sessions. Together, we can continue to serve our growing online community.
Whakatau Mai was a finalist in the 2021 Waitematā Health Excellence Awards, nominated for the Excellence in Primary and Community Care category.