| Access | Ability of people to reach or use health care services. Barriers to access can be: (1) a person’s locality, income or knowledge of services available; or (2) by the acceptability or availability of existing services. |
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| Annual Plans | Operational plans covering a 12-month period. |
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| Aotearoa | ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’ more commonly used by North Island Māori as the indigenous word for New Zealand. |
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| Audit | The verification of performance against predetermined standards or contracts by a process of inspections, interviews and appraisal of documentation. |
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| Avoidable or preventable hospitalisation or mortality | Hospitalisation or death due to causes which could have been avoided by preventive or therapeutic programmes. |
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Caregiver
(voluntary caregiver) | A voluntary caregiver or carer is a person, usually a family member, who looks after a person with a disability or health problem, and who is unpaid. |
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| Communicable diseases | Diseases capable of being passed from one person to another. |
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| Community | A collective of people identified by their common values and mutual concern for the development and wellbeing of their group or geographical area. |
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| Complementary care | Health care provided by non-registered practitioners. |
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| Consultation | The process of seeking the views of individuals or groups. These include both providers and health service users. |
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Culturally appropriate
services | Services responsive to, and respectful of, the history, traditions and cultural values of the different ethnic groups in our society. |
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| Culturally effective services | Services that are both culturally appropriate and clinically effective. |
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| Determinants of health | The range of personal, social, economic and environmental factors that determine the health status of individuals or populations. |
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| Disability | Incapacity caused by congenital state, injury or age-related condition expected to last six months or more. A disability may or may not be associated with the need for assistance. |
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| Disease | Disorder or pathology that affects health. |
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| Disparity (or deprivation) | Socioeconomic or health inequality or difference relative to the local
community or wider society to which an individual, family or group belongs. |
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| District Health Boards | District Health Boards are organisations being established to protect, promote and improve the health and independence of a geographically defined population. Each District Health Board will fund, provide or ensure the provision of services for its population. |
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| Environment | Physical surroundings and conditions. |
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| Epidemiology | The scientific study of the distribution of disease. |
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| Equity (in health) | Equity means fairness. |
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| Evaluation | Assessment against a standard. Evaluations can assess both the process (of establishing a programme to deliver an outcome) and outcomes (ultimate objectives). |
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| Evidence-based practice | Clinical decision making based on a systematic review of the scientific evidence of the risks, benefits and costs of alternative forms of diagnosis or treatment. |
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| Funding agreement | This is the agreement the Crown enters into with any person or entity under which the person or entity agrees to provide or arrange the provision of services in return for payment. For District Health Boards, this will include the District Health Board Annual Plan, funding schedules and the District Health Board Statement of Intent. |
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| Goal | A high level strategic statement. |
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| Hapu | Sub-tribe. |
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| Health education | Providing information and teaching people how to behave safely and in a manner that promotes and maintains their health. |
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| Health gain (loss) | Health gain (loss) is a way to express improved (deterioration in) health outcomes. It can be used to measure: (1) the improvement (or deterioration) in population health status; or (2) the degree to which the level of health of a population has changed in response to a policy or other intervention. |
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| Health information | Health information, in relation to an identifiable individual, means information:
- about the health of that individual, including that individual’s medical history
- about any disabilities that individual has, or has had
- about any health services or disability services that are being provided, or have been provided, to that individual
- provided by that individual in connection with the donation, by that individual, of any body part, or any bodily substance, of that individual.
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| Health needs | This can be either: (1) what an individual requires to achieve or maintain health; or (2) an estimation of the programmes required to improve the health of populations. |
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| Health needs assessment | A process designed to establish the health requirements of a particular population. |
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| Health outcomes | A change in the health status of an individual, group or population which is attributable to a planned programme or series of programmes, regardless of whether such a programme was intended to change health status. |
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| Health policy | A formal statement or procedure within institutions (notably government) that defines priorities and the parameters for action. |
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| Health promotion | Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It is a comprehensive social and political process. |
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| Health status | A description and/or measurement of the health of an individual or population. |
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| Health target | A change in the health status of a population that can be reasonably expected within a defined time period. |
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| Health workforce | Providers of health care services such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists or health promoters. |
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| Incidence | The number of new cases or deaths that occur in a given period in a specified population. |
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| Informed consent | A medico-legal doctrine that holds providers responsible for ensuring health service users or patients understand the risks and benefits of a procedure or medicine before it is administered. |
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| Injury | Either: (1) unintentional injuries (damage to the body resulting from unplanned events such as road accidents, workplace accidents or accidents in the home); or (2) intentional injuries (resulting from assault, suicide etc). |
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| Intersectoral collaboration | Projects involving various sectors of society including central and local government agencies (health, education, welfare and so on), community organisations (IHC, CCS, Māori Women’s Welfare League, etc) and the private sector. |
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| Intervention | A programme or series of programmes. |
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| Iwi | Tribe. |
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| Lifestyle | Lifestyle is a way of living based on identifiable patterns of behaviour based on an individual’s choice, influenced by the individual’s personal characteristics, their social interactions, and socioeconomic and environmental factors. |
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| Mana | Integrity, prestige, jurisdiction, authority. |
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| Monitoring | The performance and analysis of routine measurements, aimed at detecting changes. |
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| Morbidity | Illness. |
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| Mortality | Death. |
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| Objective | Objectives state what is to be achieved and cover the range of desired outcomes to achieve a goal. |
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| Pacific peoples | The population of Pacific Island ethnic origin (for example, Tongan, Niuean, Fijian, Samoan, Cook Island Maori, and Tokelauan) incorporating people of Pacific Island ethnic origin born in New Zealand as well as overseas. |
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| Partnership | The relationship of good faith, mutual respect and understanding and shared decision making between the Crown and Māori. |
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| Performance indicator | A measure that shows the degree to which a strategy has been achieved. |
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| Population-based funding | Population-based funding involves using a formula to allocate each District Health Board a fair share of the available resources so that each Board has an equal opportunity to meet the health and disability needs of its population. |
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| Population health | The health of groups, families and communities. Populations may be defined by locality, biological criteria such as age or gender, social criteria such as socioeconomic status, or cultural criteria such as whanau. |
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| Population health outcomes | Used to describe a change in the health status of a population due to a planned programme or series of programmes, regardless of whether such programmes were intended to change health status. |
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| Population health status | The level of health experienced by a population at a given time. This may be measured by separately identifying patterns of death and illness in a population or by means of one or more measures. |
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| Prevalence | The number of instances of a disease or other condition in a population at a given period in time. |
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| Primary health care | Primary health care means essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, culturally appropriate and socially acceptable methods. It is universally accessible to people in their communities, involves community participation, is integral to, and a central function of, the country’s health system, and is the first level of contact with the health system. |
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| Principle | A fundamental basis for action. |
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| Programme | A programme is a group of activities directed towards achieving defined objectives and targets. |
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| Programme evaluation | The assessment of policies, materials, personnel, performance, quality of practice or services and other inputs and implementation experiences. |
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| Provider | An organisation or individual providing health and disability services. |
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| Public health | The science and art of promoting health, preventing disease and prolonging life through organised efforts of society. |
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| Public health approaches | The goals of public health are to focus on the determinants of health, build strategic alliances and implement comprehensive programmes to promote public health. |
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| Public health services | Goods, services or facilities provided for the purpose of improving or promoting public health. |
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| Quality assurance | Formal process of implementing quality assessment and quality improvement in programmes to assure people that professional activities have been performed adequately. |
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| Rangatahi | Used in health to define Māori youth in the 15–24 age range. |
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| Rate | In epidemiology, a rate is the frequency with which a health event occurs in a defined population. The components of the rate are the number of deaths (numerator), the population at risk (denominator) and the specified time in which the events occurred. All rates are ratios, calculated by dividing the numerator by the denominator. |
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| Regulation | The act of enforcing policies, rules or laws. |
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| Risk behaviour | Specific forms of behaviour which are proven to be associated with increased susceptibility to a specific injury, disease or ill health. |
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| Risk factor | An aspect of personal behaviour or lifestyle, an environmental exposure, or an inborn or inherited characteristic that is associated with an increased risk of a person developing a disease. |
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| Secondary care | Specialist care that is typically provided in a hospital setting. |
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| Socioeconomic disadvantage | A relative lack of financial and material means experienced by a group in society which may limit their access to opportunities and resources that are available to the wider society. |
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| Strategic plans | Plans produced by District Health Boards and the Ministry of Health that will outline the strategic direction over a five to 10-year period. |
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| Strategy | A course of action to achieve targets. |
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| Tamariki | Children; can be used to include young people who have not yet reached adulthood. In this document, tamariki refers to children up to and including 14 years of age. |
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| Target | A specific and measurable aim relating to an objective. |
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| Tertiary care | Very specialised care often only provided in a small number of locations. |
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| Tikanga | Customary practice, rule. |
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| Treaty of Waitangi | New Zealand’s founding document. It establishes the relationship between the Crown and Māori as tangata whenua (first peoples) and requires both the Crown and Māori to act reasonably towards each other and with utmost good faith. |
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| Whanau | Family. |
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| Whare tapa wha | The four cornerstones of a house. |
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Well-child/
Tamariki ora services | Term used to describe all activities that promote health and prevent disease that are undertaken in the primary care setting for children and their families and whanau. |
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| Wellness | A dimension of health beyond the absence of disease or infirmity, including social, emotional and spiritual aspects of health. |