Health Professionals
Referring Patients
Referring patients is easy - send us an email to info "at" healthjourneys.org.nz or freephone 0800 42 00 42.
We find that if you refer directly we can then follow up and discuss options with your patient- it means a better outcome rather than expecting the patient to contact us directly.
If you refer a patient we will endeavour to get the patients permission to inform you of final outcomes of our dealings with your patient. That ensures that we are all informed of progress and likely future issues.
Our services are currently free for all cancer patients AND their significant others.
What do we do?
Our main focus is to ensure emotional wellness before, during and after cancer treatment.
Our work is underpinned by the Health Change Process Model (below), which was developed at Waikato University by Dr Kieren Faull. The main aspect of this model is that it provides an assessment tool to discuss quality of life issues pertinent to all those undergoing major trauma through illness- in our case specifically cancer.
We have conducted over 150 interviews utilising this model over the past year and have discovered that cancer patients in almost all cases relate the model to their current circumstances and this enables then to see future choices that can underpin improvement in the quality of their lives. Our aim is to build internal resiliency with our clients regardless of their “cancer status”.
The initial interview normally lasts 60-90 minutes. The patient fills in a questionnaire of 28 questions and utilising a sophisticated computer model we can determine levels of anxiety (or sheer terror of non-existence), motivation to change, internal or external identity, awareness of possibility of change, self-esteem and if the current identity is sustainable or not. While this tool has shown to be approximately 80% accurate, verification is still required in the interview process with the patient.
Once the patient has clearly identified at what stage they find themselves we facilitate discussions on ways to move forward if that is what the patient desires. We do identify some patients as having a “disability identity” and if agreed to by the client we can refer these clients to more specialised counselling services.
The “Survive to Thrive” workshop was developed in response to patients needing further support in their personal development of a resilient identity.
Our staff
Our staff, as Health Facilitators have to undertake the full training in the Health Change Process Model before being able to assess patients on their own and are all supervised by a community psychologist (currently Dr Kieren Faull) to ensure client and practitioners safety. Each staff member needs to undertake a rigorous self-development programme as part of their training to ensure that our practitioners have high emotional resiliency. Active ongoing training and education is actively encouraged.
