Tāmaki Health/Total Healthcare’s mental wellness services have received national recognition by winning three awards, including best mental health provider or service, at the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora 2026.
The Wellness Support Team’s (WST) three wins were for:
- HALEO Best Mental Health Programme or Service award.
- Mana Taurite (Equity) Service Delivery award, Kia Korowai Service (for ACC sensitive claims support).
- reCare Health Improvement Practitioner of the Year award, Amanda Harris.
We’re also so proud to see that Tāmaki Health’s Digital Team took out the Spark Health Excellence in Information Technology or Telehealth award. The team’s innovative mahi across the large clinic network is key to helping improve patient care and service delivery.
Praise for nationally significant ecosystem of care
WST is led by primary mental health psychiatrist Dr David Codyre, whose role is funded by Total Healthcare PHO, and the team includes close to 90 staff, including psychiatrists, psychologists, health improvement practitioners, health coaches, pharmacists, care partners, group facilitators and administrative staff. The services reached more than 20,330 people last year.
One awards judge said the WST provided “singularly the most significant ecosystem of care in the primary health and primary mental health arena in the country I would expect, affording people to have access to early interventions right through to access to psychiatrists and everything in between and aftercare follow-up as required."
Excellence in improved equity for Māori and Pasifika praised
The Kia Korowai Service supports people seeking ACC sensitive-claims support who usually have to contact multiple providers, join long waitlists and retell experiences of sexual harm simply to reach a first appointment. ‘Kia Korowai’ means to cloak; it offers a gentler pathway where GPs or clinicians refer people directly, without the need to complete ACC paperwork or immediately provide a detailed trauma history.
The judges noted the “excellent” improved equity as demonstrated by the high rates of engagement with the mental health service for Māori and Pasifika patients.
One of the strongest sector-impact award entries
Winning health improvement practitioner (HIP), Amanda Harris, the clinical lead across 38 Tāmaki Health clinics, supports more than 50 HIPs and health coaches with training, mentoring and supervision.
She saw people experiencing genuine distress leave hurried consultations with antidepressants when sometimes they were simply “experiencing real life”. Her response was to develop Skills Before Pills, offering patients time with an HIP before medication. At Pukekohe Family Health Care, prescriptions fell from 112 in January to 32 in May. Amanda also developed pathways for ADHD, menopause and diabetes-related mental health.
Judges said: “This is one of the strongest sector-impact entries, with system-wide change, conference presentations and workforce development influencing broader practice.”
Digital innovation at an “impressive” scale
Tāmaki Health’s Digital team, led by Samir Ranchhod who was runner up and a highly-commended finalist for the New Zealand CIO of the Year award this year, was praised for its innovative technologies that improve both patient care and service delivery.
Tāmaki Health patients can visit any of its GP or urgent-care clinics and know the clinician has their full medical history. That shared record has also allowed the digital team to build dozens of small automations that make useful information harder to miss. Since 2025, the system has generated more than 1.2 million prompts for care such as immunisation and breast screening.
Judges described the scale of implementation of innovations as “impressive” due to its reach across a large group of practices. These innovations included improved access to appointments and reminders for missed vaccinations and screenings, helping to reduce barriers to preventive care. Automated booking and reminders reduced missed appointments by up to 10 per cent.
