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By Stephanie ChaddSenior Operations Manager, Wellness Support Team, Tamaki HealthHave you ever walked into a room and felt like you belonged?Maybe it was with friends, whānau, teammates, work colleagues, or a group of people who just seemed to understand what you were going through. It is a simple feeling, but it can make a big difference to how we see ourselves, how we cope with life's challenges, and how we experience wellbeing.This year's Mental Health Awareness Week theme, Belonging Matters1, reminds us of something many of us instinctively know: we all need connection. Feeling connected to others is not just nice to have. It is a fundamental part of being human and an important contributor to both mental and physical health.Unfortunately, many people in our community are feeling increasingly disconnected. The Mental Health Foundation reports that loneliness has increased in New Zealand over the past decade, and more people are reporting feeling lonely some or most of the time2.Working in our GP clinics, we see this every day.We meet people who are struggling with anxiety, low mood, grief, long-term health conditions, parenting challenges, life transitions, or stress. While everyone's circumstances are different, one thing often sits quietly in the background: a lack of meaningful connection.Many people tell us they feel alone in what they are experiencing.They believe nobody else understands.They withdraw from activities they once enjoyed.They lose confidence in reaching out.Over time, this isolation can have a significant impact on wellbeing.We know through research that loneliness and social isolation are associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety, poorer physical health, increased risk of heart disease and stroke, and even a greater risk of dementia in later life. Health New Zealand notes that social isolation can impact both mental and physical health and is associated with poorer health outcomes across multiple conditions3.International research paints a similar picture. Age UK's 2024 report found that persistent loneliness is associated with a 29% increased risk of coronary heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 25% increased risk of developing dementia. The report also found that nine out of ten older adults who were frequently lonely reported feeling unhappy or depressed4.While these statistics are concerning, there is another side to the story.Connection helps.Belonging helps.People do better when they feel part of something.When people feel connected, they are more likely to seek support, engage in healthy behaviours, build resilience, and cope more effectively with difficult situations. Strong social relationships provide encouragement during hard times and remind us that we do not have to face challenges alone.This is one of the reasons group programmes are such an important part of the work we do within the Wellness Support Team.Although groups often focus on developing skills, increasing knowledge, or supporting recovery, the benefits go far beyond the programme content itself.Groups also create opportunities for people to meet others who have had similar experiences. They provide a space where people can share their challenges without fear of judgement. They allow people to learn from each other, celebrate successes together, and realise that they are not alone.Often, the most valuable thing people take away from a group is not a worksheet or a new technique.It is the realisation that someone else understands.That there are other people facing similar struggles.That support exists.That they belong.Across the Wellness Support Team, we are fortunate to offer a diverse range of groups that create opportunities for people to connect, learn and grow together. Whether someone joins our Self-Management Education (SME) programme, the shorter Manage Better Together series, our eight-week Aotearoa Mindfulness and Acceptance (AMA) group, or Mindful Mums sessions; whether a child takes part in Seasons for Growth to navigate grief and loss, a man finds strength and support through our Men's Group, a rangatahi builds resilience in our Youth Coping Skills Group, or someone develops practical wellbeing strategies through Wise Minds DBT Skills, they are becoming part of something bigger than a programme.They are joining a community. A community where people share experiences, build confidence, develop new skills, and support one another through life's challenges. In these spaces, connection becomes a powerful catalyst for wellbeing, helping people feel seen, understood, and less alone on their journey.Even small acts of connection can make a meaningful difference. Taking time for a conversation, checking in on a neighbour, inviting someone to join an activity, or simply letting another person know they matter can strengthen belonging and reduce loneliness. Funny thing is even doing something nice for someone else can actually boost your own sense of wellbeing.Belonging is built through everyday moments.A welcoming smile.A shared cup of coffee.A conversation in a waiting room.A text message asking how someone is doing.An invitation to join a group.These seemingly small actions can have a lasting impact.This upcoming Mental Health Awareness Week in October, I encourage everyone to think about their own connections and the connections of those around them.Who helps you feel supported?Who makes you feel like you belong?Is there someone in your life who may be feeling isolated and could benefit from a simple check-in?Could joining a group help you build new connections and strengthen your wellbeing?The evidence is clear that social connection matters. But more importantly, our everyday experiences tell us the same thing.We all want to feel valued • We all want to feel included • We all want to know that we matterBecause when people feel they belong, wellbeing grows. And stronger connections create stronger individuals, stronger whānau, and stronger communities.If you feel like you would like to know more about our groups or to access wellbeing support visit our website to find out how you can join one of our group programmes or get more connected through our other wellbeing support services. 1 Belonging matters | Mental Health Awareness Week Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 | Mental Health Foundation Loneliness and isolation you-are-not-alone-in-feeling-lonely---parliamentary-briefing-.pdf // Strips html from content property

Early results from the first rollout of an AI Health Coach within New Zealand primary care suggest a hybrid model combining AI with clinical staff could help reach significantly more high-need patients, while increasing consistency of workforce practices and extending support between appointments without adding equivalent pressure to the workforce.Tāmaki Health launched the AI Health Coach across selected clinics in July with New Zealand health technology company Groov, following its development and co-design with patients, workforce and clinical leaders. The rollout was the first time an AI Health Coach had been integrated into routine primary care in New Zealand, designed to work alongside Tāmaki Health’s existing workforce.Early data from the first six weeks, across six Tāmaki Health clinics working with six Health Coaches, is now providing an indication of what that model could deliver at scale, including:Proactive outreach using AI alongside human coaching engaged 7 times more patients than comparable previous human-only text campaigns.Overall collection of patient-reported health outcome information increased by 8% with the AI Health Coach.The AI Health Coach provided 105 additional patient touchpoints between appointments without additional workforce time.Importantly, the outreach was not aimed at people already highly engaged with their healthcare. Tāmaki Health deliberately targeted people living with diabetes whose average blood glucose levels indicated poorly controlled diabetes and who had not attended a clinic for six months or more.Tāmaki Health CEO Dr Lloyd McCann says the early results provide encouraging evidence for combining technology with the existing health workforce. “Early results are promising and indicate that further roll-out and investment where we blend the best of our human teams with technology is a sustainable path forward.”Reaching people primary care needs to reconnect withOne of the clearest early results has come from Tāmaki Health’s proactive outreach to people living with diabetes who had not attended a clinic for at least six months. Rather than waiting for those patients to return to a clinic or be referred by a GP, they were proactively contacted and offered access to both the AI Health Coach and a human Health Coach. The outreach achieved a 2.7% enrolment rate compared with a 0.4% seasonal benchmark for comparable human-only outreach, representing a 7-fold increase. This result is based on a relatively small, higher-need cohort and is indicative rather than a controlled comparison, but provides an encouraging early signal about the ability of the model to engage people who may otherwise remain disconnected from support.Groov CEO Matt Krogstad says the ability to proactively reach priority populations is where the potential health system impact becomes particularly important. “This is a group the health system really wants to reach: people living with diabetes whose blood glucose levels indicate their condition is not well controlled and who have been out of care for six months or more. Instead of waiting for them to come back through the door, we can bring support to them proactively.”Across the pilot more broadly, enrolment in the AI Health Coach as a proportion of patients seen increased from 41% in week one to 75% by week six, 4.4 times the enrolment rate of the existing digital portal used as the closest available benchmark for this population.“The early results suggest that combining the reach of AI with human healthcare can help us engage significantly more people without having to increase the workforce at the same rate. If we can reach people earlier and help them manage their health before problems escalate, there is a real opportunity over time to reduce avoidable pressure on both primary and secondary care,” he adds.The early results are also encouraging from an equity perspective. Pacific Peoples and Māori together account for 56% of patients enrolled in the AI Health Coach, a 1.4x higher proportion than their representation across the clinics where the pilot is operating. Pacific Peoples make up 38% of AI Health Coach enrolments compared with 27% of the clinic population, while Māori account for 18% of AI Health Coach enrolments compared with 13% of the clinic population.Tāmaki Health Chief Digital Officer Sam Ranchhod says increasing access cannot rely simply on increasing the number of appointments available. “Primary healthcare cannot simply rely on adding more appointments to meet growing demand. We need new ways to support people earlier, help them stay engaged between appointments and make it easier to access care when they need it.”Collecting more health information while reducing administration A second important finding is the potential for AI to improve the amount and consistency of health information collected without creating another administrative task for frontline healthcare workers. Patient-reported outcome measures capture information directly from patients about their health and wellbeing and help healthcare providers understand whether support is making a difference. Collecting this information consistently is important for individual care, but also gives the wider health system better information about programme performance and where services may need to change.In the first six weeks following the rollout, Tāmaki Health’s pilot Health Coaches recorded an 8% increase in the overall collection of patient-reported outcome information for patients using the AI Health Coach compared with their performance before the AI Health Coach was introduced. The biggest improvement was in collecting this information at the beginning of a patient’s care, where completion increased by 15%. Importantly, 55% of all collection was performed by the AI Health Coach and this has been accelerating, reaching 78% collection rates in week six and demonstrating the opportunity to relieve the workforce of significant administrative burden.Among patients using the platform, 84% completed their patient-reported health forms through the AI Health Coach, meaning information that would otherwise require manual collection by the workforce could instead be provided directly by patients. Fifty-five per cent of patients also had an active health action plan on the platform.Krogstad says this could become one of the most important benefits if the model is expanded. “What we are seeing here is the potential to collect more consistent information directly from patients while taking some of that administrative load away from healthcare teams. That helps the workforce, but it also gives the system better information to understand the return it is getting from healthcare investment and where improvements need to be made.”Support that continues when life happensThe pilot also showcases how AI can extend the reach of primary care beyond the clinic itself. The AI Health Coach is available around the clock, giving patients somewhere to return to when they have a question, encounter a problem or need to adjust a health goal between appointments. It works alongside human care, with patients directed back to Tāmaki Health’s clinical teams when additional support is needed.During the first six weeks, 27% of enrolled patients had a conversation with the AI Health Coach between clinic visits and 12% returned to check in on their action plan. Overall, the AI Health Coach created 105 additional patient touchpoints between appointments without additional workforce time. Patients rated its helpfulness an average 8.9 out of 10.Dr David Codyre, Clinical Director, Wellness Support Team at Tāmaki Health, says extending support beyond the consultation is central to the model. “Most health improvement happens outside the consultation room. The AI Health Coach gives people practical, evidence-based support to turn advice into action, build confidence and sustain healthier behaviours between appointments, while ensuring they can be directed back to human care whenever needed.”In one case, a patient raised exercise-related pain with the AI Health Coach that they had not mentioned to their healthcare professional. Their action plan could be changed immediately rather than waiting until their next appointment. Unprompted, patients also began holding conversations with the AI Health Coach in their native tongue. The multilingual capability had not been promoted and remains in beta pending further safety review, but the early behaviour points to another potential way of making support more accessible between appointments. Human oversight remains built into the model. Every AI Health Coach conversation generated during the pilot is anonymised and then clinically reviewed, with zero unsafe responses identified to date.What could this mean at scale?The next phase will extend the AI Health Coach to Tāmaki Health’s Health Improvement Practitioners. The same model also has the potential to be used for other priority populations where earlier engagement could change the trajectory of care, including people affected by gout or obesity, young people and pre- and post-natal populations.Already, several large Primary Health Organisations have also expressed interest in implementing the model across primary care settings. Krogstad says the early results point to a broader opportunity to increase the capacity of New Zealand’s health system without assuming that every additional interaction with a patient requires another appointment. “New Zealand does not have an unlimited healthcare workforce, yet we need to reach more people, collect better information about whether our programmes are working and provide support when people actually need it.“The opportunity with a hybrid model is to make the workforce we already have go further while removing burden from their heavy workdays. The early data suggests we can reach significantly more priority patients, collect more of the information the system needs and continue supporting people between appointments, while escalating them back to a human whenever that is the right thing to do.“It is still early, but if those results continue as the model expands, this gives us a potentially scalable way to increase the reach and capacity of primary care while keeping people at the centre of it. This has significant positive impacts for the community, primary care and secondary care costs where high costs and long wait times are a major issue.” // Strips html from content property

We're pleased to welcome Manukau City Medical Centre and Mekala Medical Centre to the Tāmaki Health network. Many people in the community will already know Dr Selvakumar, who has been caring for patients in Manukau for more than 30 years, and Dr Mekala Pushparajah, who has been serving the local community for around 15 years. Together with their teams, they have built a strong reputation for providing trusted, accessible healthcare close to home. As the two clinics are already located in the same building, they will officially come together at the end of August and become Local Doctors Manukau. From September, patients will start to see the Local Doctors Manukau name and signage at the clinic.For patients, it's very much business as usual. They will continue to see the same trusted doctors, nurses, and support staff they know, while also benefiting from access to a wider range of healthcare services across the Tāmaki Health network, including: • 15 Urgent Care clinics across Auckland• 24/7 online GP appointments through Bettr.co.nz• A range of specialist and extended healthcare services We're excited about this next chapter and look forward to continuing to support the health and wellbeing of the Manukau community.A warm welcome to Dr Selva, Dr Mekala, and their teams. We are proud to have you as part of the Tāmaki Health whānau. // Strips html from content property

Update: 14/09/2026 - Early Tāmaki Health trial shows human + AI model reaching 7x more priority patientsAt Tāmaki Health, we're always looking for new ways to make healthcare more accessible, personalised and proactive.That's why we're proud to be the first primary healthcare provider in New Zealand to integrate an AI Health Coach into routine patient care.Working alongside our Health Coaches and clinical teams, the AI Health Coach gives patients practical support before, between and after appointments. Whether someone is looking to build healthier habits, better manage a long-term condition or simply stay on track with their health goals, the AI Health Coach provides personalised guidance and encouragement whenever they need it.Supporting people beyond the clinicWe know that improving your health doesn't just happen during an appointment. The biggest changes often happen at home, between visits, when you're putting advice into practice.Our Health Coaches and Health Improvement Practitioners have already helped thousands of patients make lasting lifestyle changes, better manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and improve their overall wellbeing.The AI Health Coach builds on this successful model by making support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn't replace our people—it complements them. If additional support is needed, patients can be seamlessly connected with one of our Health Coaches or clinical teams."Our healthcare system needs to evolve alongside the needs of our communities," says Sam Ranchhod, Chief Digital Officer at Tāmaki Health."Primary healthcare cannot simply rely on adding more appointments to meet growing demand. We need new ways to support people earlier, help them stay engaged between appointments and make it easier to access care when they need it."A digital front door to careThe AI Health Coach acts as a digital front door, allowing people to start a health coaching conversation before they've even booked an appointment.Patients can receive personalised support for lifestyle and behaviour change, including help with diabetes, gout, weight management, anxiety and other long-term health goals. If the AI identifies that someone needs additional clinical support, they're referred directly into our existing care pathways.This hybrid approach combines the convenience of AI with the expertise and compassion of our healthcare professionals.Built for healthcareOur AI Health Coach is powered by Groov, a New Zealand digital health company specialising in clinically designed AI tools.Unlike general-purpose AI, the platform has been built specifically for healthcare using clinically reviewed content, clear referral pathways and strong privacy, security and governance standards.Encouraging early resultsEarly results from more than 4,500 AI Health Coach conversations have been encouraging.After a single coaching session, users reported a 32% increase in their confidence and capability to manage their health and wellbeing. By the second month, this increased to 75%, with users rating the experience 8.5 out of 10 for helpfulness.As we continue rolling the AI Health Coach out across selected Tāmaki Health clinics, we'll keep evaluating how it improves patient engagement, access to care and long-term health outcomes.This is another step towards delivering more connected, accessible healthcare—helping people get the support they need, when they need it. // Strips html from content property

The story, which aired in March, highlighted the growing need for accessible after hours healthcare across South Auckland and the positive impact overnight urgent care services are already having for local whānau.For the first time, the Ōtara clinic is now providing urgent care through the night, helping fill a long standing gap in after hours healthcare access for the community. The service gives patients another local option for urgent care when they need it most, while also helping reduce pressure on emergency departments for lower acuity concerns.The launch marked an important milestone for healthcare access across South Auckland, with Health Minister visiting the clinic during the opening period to acknowledge the expansion of overnight urgent care services in the area.Local Doctors teams have already seen first hand the difference improved after hours access can make for patients and families, particularly for those who previously faced long travel times and extended waits at hospital emergency departments.The clinic continues to welcome walk ins, including casual and visiting patients. Children under 14 are seen free of charge, Community Services Card holders receive additional subsidies, and after hours fees remain unchanged.The new 24/7 service reflects the needs of the Ōtara community and has been made possible through the support of clinical teams, operational staff and community partners working together to improve access to healthcare closer to home.A huge thank you to Barbara Dreaver and the 1News team for helping share this important story with audiences across Aotearoa. Earlier this year, Barbara Dreaver and the team visited Ōtara to cover the launch of the clinic’s new 24/7 urgent care service at its Watford Road location. // Strips html from content property

Providing Safe & Inclusive Care training now liveWe’re proud to announce the launch of our new internal training course: Providing Safe & Inclusive Care for Rainbow/Takatāpui/MVPFAFF+ Staff.This course comes after many months of dedicated work by our Rainbow Takatāpui Committee, in collaboration with the Learning Hub and Marketing team. A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in bringing this important kaupapa to life.The training is designed to build practical skills and confidence to support safe, respectful, and inclusive care for Rainbow, Takatāpui, and MVPFAFF+ communities. It explores diverse identities and health needs, and offers tools that can be applied straight away to improve patient experience, strengthen trust, and support health equity.This learning is valuable for everyone across our organisation — supporting both our teams and our patients — as we continue working together towards greater inclusion and progress.The course is now available on HCM Cloud and Neuron for staff only. We encourage all staff to take part 🏳️‍🌈 // Strips html from content property

Local Doctors joins ASB Polyfest as official Diversity Stage sponsor for 2026We’re proud to share that Local Doctors is officially sponsoring the Diversity Stage at ASB Polyfest in 2026.This partnership builds on our long-standing relationship with Polyfest and the wider multicultural community. For 2026, we’re excited to step up as official sponsors of the Diversity Stage — a space that celebrates culture, connection, and the next generation coming together through performance.At Local Doctors, community is at the heart of everything we do. Polyfest brings kids, families, and cultures together in one place, and that’s exactly why this event means so much to us.📅 18–21 March 2026📍 Pasifika & Diversity Stage | Manukau Sports BowlAs always, you’ll find our Local Doctors stall on site with fun competitions, activities, and prizes to be won. Our Wellness Support Team will also be there to chat about your health — and to enjoy the festival alongside you.We can’t wait to see the incredible performances and share a few great days together celebrating culture, whānau, and community. See you in March 💙  // Strips html from content property

We’re proud to share that Local Doctors Ōtara is now officially open 24/7 for urgent care — bringing round-the-clock support closer to home for South Auckland whānau.Last month, we marked this important moment with a visit from Health Minister Simeon Brown, celebrating the launch of overnight urgent care at our Watford Road clinic.This is the first time our Ōtara clinic has offered care through the night, helping fill a long-standing gap in after-hours services across South Auckland. It means more flexibility for families, easier access to urgent care when it’s needed most, and fewer people having to travel to Middlemore Hospital for lower-acuity concerns.Our doctors and teams have seen first-hand how challenging after-hours care can be. Many patients were previously spending long hours waiting in emergency departments — sometimes returning home without being seen. Now, they have another local option.We’ll continue welcoming walk-ins, including casual and visiting patients. Children under 14 are seen free of charge, Community Services Card holders receive additional subsidies, and after-hours fees remain unchanged.This service reflects the real needs of the Ōtara community — and we’re grateful to everyone who helped make it happen, from our clinical teams to our partners and supporters behind the scenes.Thank you to all our staff delivering and supporting this new 24/7 service. We’re proud to keep caring for our community, day and night.  // Strips html from content property