Public Health campaigns

Health New Zealand’s Minimising Gambling Harm programme aims to strengthen society's understanding, awareness of, and response to gambling-related harms through campaigns. Safer Gambling Aotearoa is its overarching brand. 

Our Safer Gambling Aotearoa campaigns have a goal to increase the quality of life for New Zealanders. We want to do this by strengthening society's response to gambling, and preventing and reducing gambling harm.

Safer Gambling Aotearoa website (external link)

The F.A.S.T campaign encourages everyone to learn the key signs of stroke, and to think and act fast.

Stroke is the leading cause of disability in Aotearoa New Zealand. Over 9,000 people experience a stroke every year.

Prompt action can save lives and improve recovery. The F.A.S.T campaign encourages everyone to:

• learn the key signs of stroke
• think F.A.S.T and act fast
• look out for each other by calling 111 if they suspect a stroke.

Previous iterations of this campaign ran in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The campaign is a collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Health Promotion, and the Stroke Foundation of New Zealand.

More information is available on the Stroke Foundation website (external link). Campaign resources (external link) are also available.

This award-winning campaign is for people who may have Hepatitis C and not know it.

Over 100 New Zealanders continue to die each year from hepatitis C even though we now have an easy test and an easy cure. These deaths could have been prevented by earlier diagnosis and treatment.

One of the biggest challenges in getting people to test for hepatitis C is that the symptoms can be barely noticeable until damage has already been done, which means a lot of people living with the virus don’t realise they have it. There’s also stigma associated with hepatitis C because it’s transmitted through contact with infected blood, so at-risk people are often wary of talking to a health professional or seeking a test.

The National Hepatitis C Awareness Campaign has been developed  in partnership with health sector representatives, peer workers and people with lived experience of hepatitis C from across the motu.

We’ve chosen the theme of ‘Stick it to hep C’ – ‘Werohia te Atekakā C’  because all it takes to find out if you’ve been exposed to hepatitis C is a quick and easy finger-prick test.

5210 — Te Ara Hauora Tika | The Healthy Way to Go encourages tamariki and their whānau to make healthy choices every day that everyone benefits from. This includes eating vegetables and fruit, limiting screen time, being active, and drinking water or milk instead of sugary drinks. Go 5210 every day.

Minimising alcohol-related harm is an important step towards a healthy and equitable society in Aotearoa.

An important part of this journey is to raise awareness of the impact that alcohol has on all sectors and across communities.

Our efforts recognise the wider role of drinking, as well as its, place, cultural relevance and history, at all levels.

This strategic platform approach towards reducing alcohol harm is Amohia Te Waiora – We’re stronger without alcohol. It is a strengths-based message that means to ‘uphold our wellness’. It encourages mana motuhake (self-determination) for us to raise up and make our wellbeing a priority.

Our alcohol harm minimisation strategy is developed in line with our Te Tiriti dynamic approach. It is strengths-based, community owned, and trusted.

Our aim for the future is to support communities that are already challenging the role of alcohol in their lives, culture, and future. Amohia te Waiora offers a unifying call for change that can be owned, championed, and raised by communities to reduce harm.

Key messages

When we take back some of the space alcohol fills in our lives and communities, we make space for other, better things. We can kōrero more openly, live more actively, connect with our whānau and whenua.

Together, we can minimise alcohol harm across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Audience

The audience for this campaign includes:

• Māori and Pacific communities and their leaders
• Communities that are disproportionately affected by alcohol harm
• Stakeholders and partners 

Resources

• More information about Amohia te Waiora (external link)
• Amohia te Waiora campaign resources(external link)

Protect your Breath is a campaign led by our programme for Preventing Youth Uptake of Vaping.

Protect your Breath is a social marketing campaign and website developed to help reduce vaping harm among young people in Aotearoa, by encouraging them to think critically about vaping.

The campaign offers alternatives in a non-judgemental way. It focuses on the power, strength, and sacredness of hā (breath) and our responsibility to care for this gift.

Information for parents and whānau

The Protect Your Breath website (external link) supports adults and addresses concerns about youth vaping. It includes information about the research and insights that informed the campaign.