Fieldays hold out the begging bowl
OPINION: When someone says “we don’t want a handout, we need a hand up” it usually means they have both palms out and they want your money.
The Hub is run in collaboration with Mobile Health, which provides elective day surgery for patients in rural New Zealand and supports the rural health workforce. Mobile Health chief executive Mark Eager said the initial idea behind the hub was to build a “health centre of the future” and provide an interactive platform for farmers and growers.
“With the Health and Wellbeing Hub, we get engagement from people that don’t usually receive health care,” he claims.
“In 2019, we’d see women walking into the hub with purpose, spending awhile inside looking around. Later, you’d see them return with their husbands pulled along by the ear to get a check-up.”
More than 25,000 people came through the Health and Wellbeing Hub at Fieldays 2019. Eleven malignant melanomas were detected in the Hub in 2019, and one woman discovered she had type 1 diabetes – both serious conditions that were caught at the right time.
In the Hub this year there will be organisations covering all facets of health and wellbeing. Rural mental health is also at the forefront of support again this year. Fieldays visitors can make their health a priority and catch up with a friend over a check-up at the Health and Wellbeing Hub.
