Civil Defence trials online portal for cyclone support

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A new online portal directly connecting Waikato Civil Defence to the ‘Here to help u’ platform helped hundreds of Waikato people and communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Initially built to help people and whānau during Covid-19 lockdowns, the portal was activated urgently to refer those needing wellbeing support across the Waikato region during the state of emergency between February 12 – March 6, 2023.

During this time, around 300 people were referred on to providers and supported with things like food parcels, temporary accommodation, pet food, mental health and digital health options such as Just a Thought.

“Here to help u’ really works, and we want to build on it,” Waikato Civil Defence emergency management welfare lead Sia Tanaki says.

“The online tool is free to users and people in need were also connected to local providers right across the region by going online or calling an 0800 number.”

“There are more features we will be developing with ‘Here to help u’ in the future to support the way the Civil Defence response works, including solving the problem of access for people when their phones and internet go down in some areas,” Tanaki says.

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Felicity Beadle, communications and engagement specialist, Wise Group, says the platform was initially developed in consultation with community providers, some who were working from slips of paper at the time Covid-19 first arrived.

“We wanted to create a tool that makes support accessible and easy to get for people and whānau, while also giving providers a high-tech tool to do their important work,” she says.

The goal is to pick up all help requests within 24 hours. A team of specialist connectors look at what support is needed and refer on to the closest or most appropriate provider, using the digital portal. Flags alert connectors to urgent/ high needs cases.

More than 270 providers across Waikato and Bay of Plenty are signed up and can accept or decline a referral using the portal. They can track the number of people they have supported and feel confident that people whose requests they cannot fulfil will be reassigned via the platform.

“Providers become part of a joined-up way of working, and this ensures no-one falls through the gaps” she says.

Over the cyclone period, nearly 5000 people also submitted help requests directly to the ‘Here to help u’ portal and were referred for community or self-isolation support.

The portal has supported over 140,000 people to date and Beadle says it is available to all areas across Aotearoa to roll out to their communities.


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