Background
The Department of Internal Affairs is leading a digital initiative to bring together information and services from different government agencies and associated organisations all in one place. Content warning: some of the following content may be upsetting.
Problem
Every year, 700 to 900 Kiwi families lose a child through stillbirth, foetal abnormality, neonatal death, and sudden infant death, while miscarriages affect 13,000 to 15,000 families.
Interacting with government agencies at this time of grief should be as simple and respectful as possible for those families.
Families need to be able to access the relevant services, entitlements and information from a range of different agencies, and they should not have to wander through a bureaucratic maze to do so.
Before this service was available, the amount of information people might receive about services and support available to them depended on their location.
When a parent is in a state of trauma, it is not realistic to expect them to collect various brochures, scroll through multiple websites and read pages of information.
Bereaved parents were in need of a single, reliable, and accessible support resource to act as a gateway to verified information. DIA saw this as an opportunity to make a change and make a difference.
Solution
In just four months, Catalyst worked with the Department of Internal Affairs to create Whetūrangitia(external link), a support resource for parents, family and whānau(external link) who have suffered the death of a child or baby.
This platform entailed collaboration and integration between ourselves and DIA, the Ministry of Justice, Inland Revenue, The Service Innovation Lab and Sands (a not-for-profit Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support organisation).
Thanks to the collaboration and integration of multiple parties, the new website ensures people can access in-depth information about all the available support and services.
This support resource caters specifically to stillbirth, miscarriage, neonatal death, foetal abnormality, or the death of a young child or infant.
Information includes financial entitlements such as:
- paid parental leave,
- Best Start payments,
- Work and Income funeral grants,
- and bereavement leave
Along with support resources such as: - counselling,
- bereavement literature,
- helplines,
- and a range of other resources that can provide help to bereaved parents.
All this information needs to be easy to find and digest.
Gretta Seebeck from the Catalyst team, said, "We are immensely proud of playing a role in this project and grateful to be doing work that makes a difference."
Why ‘Whetūrangitia’?
In traditional whaikōrero(external link) (oratory speeches), Māori refers to the passing of a person as a 'star' that returns to the sky to join the multitude of ancestors. Whetūrangitia(external link) means "stars that adorn the sky". The whakataukī(external link) (proverb) "Kua whetūrangitia koe" in this context means "Return, take your place amongst the stars along with your ancestors that adorn the sky".
"The design work itself needed to reflect the meaning behind whetūrangitia", said Cheryl Browne, Catalyst's Design lead: "To convey the true human warmth and feeling behind this message, I created the hand-done watercolour artwork to show Papatūānuku(external link) – the earth mother, in the footer returning the children as stars to Ranginui(external link) – the sky father."
Together Catalyst and DIA have also built SmartStart(external link), Te Hokinga ā Wairua – End of Life Services(external link) and Death Documents(external link). The Services team feel honoured to have played a part in the forming of another valuable platform and looks forward to evolving our partnership with the Department of Internal Affairs as they continue to advance New Zealand's government digital services.
