National Travel Assistance Entitlements Are Inaccessible to Whanau Maori

Abstract

New Zealand's National Travel Assistance scheme is intended to provide financial support for people who need to either travel frequently or over long distances for specialist health care treatment. Taking an Indigenous Psychology orientation to "away-from-home" hospital admissions, we broaden the focus beyond an individual's physical experience of hospitalization to the wider social and political context. Based on our research, we recommend a whanau-centered approach to travel assistance that will offer better coordination and remove factors negatively impacting whanau Maori (Indigenous families in New Zealand) health outcomes and contribute to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 of reducing inequality. Our research is congruent with the community psychology value of "accountability" and the World Health Organisation value of "better health for everyone, everywhere. "