The Māori SIDS Prevention Programme: Challenges and Implications of Māori Health Service Development

David Tipene-Leach, Sally Abel, Riripeti Haretuku, and Carole Everard

The Māori SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Prevention Programme was initiated to address the problem that the Māori SIDS death rate was not decreasing as quickly as the non-Māori rate in response to the Ministry of Health's national SIDS prevention campaign.

This paper traces the development of the programme, including a community consultation process, the appointment of regional coordinators (RCs), the development of the RC role within a new multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach to investigating deaths and supporting the families, and the extension of the programme to the general population. Key issues include:

• concerns with accurate recording of events and resulting statistical data;
• the impact of structural reform in the public sector, both on underlying factors contributing to SIDS, and on health services and the implementation of the Māori SIDS Prevention Programme (in particular, the personal/ public health division and the purchaser/provider split); and
• issues relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.