Trauma work programme

The path of making things right: te ara whakatika

‘The path of making things right: te ara whakatika’ is a national quality improvement project that began in July 2025 and will run until June 2027.

The project is a partnership between Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, ACC, and the Health Quality & Safety Commission Te Tāhū Hauora, and is funded by ACC.  We’re working together to make sure every person who has experienced major trauma has access to the rehabilitation support they need after leaving hospital.

The focus of this work has been defined by significant disparities within current data. Māori are disproportionately affected by major trauma injuries and often experience ongoing physical, psychological, and financial impacts. However, current systems result in lower and slower access to ACC and rehabilitation services for Māori, as well as fewer opportunities to engage with services once enrolled. Despite this greater need, Māori access ACC and rehabilitation services less often, more slowly, and have fewer interactions once in services. 
We’re partnering with project teams across the motu, bringing together clinical expertise, rehabilitation and community providers, kaupapa Māori services, and lived experience.

Our goal is:

• remove barriers
• strengthen partnerships
• share what works so these improvements can reach everyone across New Zealand 

Read about the call for expressions of interest for this project

Resources

• Māori experience of trauma rehabilitation report executive summary (PDF 295KB)
• Māori experience of trauma rehabilitation report (PDF 3.5MB)
• Guidance for trauma teams to support whānau Māori (DOCX 39KB)
• Whakawhanaungatanga with whānau Māori who experience trauma events (PDF 236KB)

Allied Health Service activity and outcomes for major trauma projects

Allied health professionals play a critical role in supporting the recovery of patients with major trauma. In New Zealand little is known about the scale and nature of their interventions and how they might influence outcomes.

The aim of this project is to connect two tertiary trauma services major trauma data from the New Zealand Trauma Registry (NZTR) with allied health activity data from the Safe Staffing and Health Workplaces (SSHW) programme for 6 allied health professional groups:

• physiotherapy
• social work
• occupational therapy
• speech and language therapy
• dietetics and therapy assistants. 

By linking these datasets, we can better understand the current allied health workforce response and impact for inpatient major trauma care.

Insights from this project will help shape consistent, effective practices and inform data-driven service development and workforce planning. In the future, this work will enable the exploration of how allied health interventions relate to outcomes such as length of stay, unplanned readmissions, transition to the community, and return to work. 

Optimising emotional wellbeing following major trauma

Major trauma is not only a physical injury for patients but can have significant psychological impacts on patients, whānau and staff working in acute settings. Since 2019, the Health Quality & Safety Commission Te Tāhū Hauora trauma rehabilitation programme has highlighted significant gaps in identifying and supporting psychological wellbeing during the recovery from major trauma during both the inpatient stay and in the community.

Data from the 2022 major trauma patient reported outcomes study shows that 12% of people remain severely emotionally affected two years after their injury. Yet fewer than 9% of acute trauma services have a formal process to screen for distress, and most rely on informal approaches. Many patients and whānau receive little or no education about coping with trauma, and access to psychological support is often delayed or incomplete.

This project is focused on improving emotional wellbeing for people who experience major trauma. We’re exploring how acute trauma services currently provide support, analysing hospital data, and listening to clinicians’ insights. Building on this, we aim to introduce a practical tool that helps clinicians, patients, and whānau navigate the journey after trauma. This includes clear resources for assessment, education, and referrals, all within a stepped-care approach designed to improve emotional wellbeing following major trauma.