Account
RUSHIgnite Wellbeing Platform
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2021
Submission # 123
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Output
Digital Design – Toi Matihiko
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Kaupapa
Identity – People & Culture
Impact – Social Good
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Location
National
Project Overview:
Ignite is an innovative social enterprise which tackles issues of accessibility to resources, support and education for improved wellbeing throughout New Zealand. As part of the Emerge Aotearoa organisation, they are committed to helping people be the best they can be, strengthening whānau so that communities thrive and greater equity is achieved.
Ignite uses technology and novel approaches to provide support, resources and education. Their existence seeks to meet a vital need for mental-health and wellbeing offerings that are evidence-based, fast and easy to access, with flexible options and availability to a range of budgets.
Ignite started the process of creating their hero-product; a digital platform to give the wider NZ population access to different mana-enhancing experiences that promote the health and wellbeing of individuals.
RUSH were engaged to work on the strategy, design and development to create the best digital platform experience that connects people to effective well-being support.
In early 2020 as the COVID pandemic forced New Zealanders into a nationwide lockdown and people’s mental health was compromised, the decision was made to accelerate the launch of the Ignite platform so that it could respond to the immediate need, with a special focus on resources to get through the challenges that lockdown and the pandemic brought.
Kaupapa:
Today in New Zealand, only 3% of
New Zealanders access mental health services. Issues are compounded by the fact that online self-help tools for mental wellbeing, as well as workplace wellbeing and EAP programmes, are not easily accessible.
Ignite backed by Emerge Aotearoa - one of the largest independent mental health and social service organisations in New Zealand, believe in a whole-of-life approach. The kaupapa of this enterprise meets a vital need for mental-health and wellbeing offerings that are evidence-based, fast and easy to access, with flexible options that cater to a range of budgets.
With goals to decrease the annual cost of wellbeing spend, enhance employee engagement in EAP support programmes, and ultimately to change people's lives for the better, the design and development of an online support platform addresses the challenges that currently exist within the mental health sector. The improved access to services and support responds to a key recommendation in the He Ara Oranga, Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry.
Particularly, workforces in New Zealand currently have few options available to them outside of the traditional EAP for proactively supporting their staff’s wellbeing, so an all-in-one online platform packages and delivers curated health and wellbeing content in a way that strengthens employee wellbeing and mental health now and in the future.
Ignite’s digital wellbeing platform provides virtual and in person talk-therapy across an extensive variety of wellbeing support services, a digital wellbeing self-assessment tool for employees, and an expanded resource library.
Response:
Ignite selected RUSH to build the online platform using a ‘human-centred design’ approach.
Together, clear platform objectives were determined and the experience visualised during initial workshops, then validated through activities with potential users. These included HR & Safety Managers and general users, made up of diverse personas representative of Aotearoa’s workforce.
That process led to confident engagement in a second sprint to establish an MVP. RUSH developed a new brand identity and design system then prioritised the product roadmap, ready to execute.
The roadmap was working towards an online platform that allowed a broad, digitally accessed EAP that includes education content, digital wellbeing tools and specialist support booking - then COVID hit five months into the project, and the country went into lockdown.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Ignite decided to make the resources section of their platform available early, enabled by RUSH’s agile squad’s ability to pivot quickly.
The platform features resources created and curated by RUSH and a team of clinicians which provides tools and strategies for coping with lockdown-related challenges and ways to optimise the unfamiliar situations they find themselves in during the pandemic.
Fast-tracking the MVP helped thousands of people across New Zealand navigate uncertain times and better manage the wellbeing of themselves and their whānau.
Since the initial release, Ignite has now launched the full digital employee platform to over 1800 users and enhanced features including the Support Provider and Workshop booking facilities, Mood Diary and Digital Wellbeing Planning Tool.
Credits & Collaborators: RUSH: - Terry Williams-Willcock, Tenzin Pooch, Adrian Van Nierop, Simon Thomas, Brendan Haddock, Jodie Catterall, Scott Kennedy, Marina Babych, Shrish Apte, Gareth van Essen, Cameron Peet, Gabriel Lantin IGNITE: - Vanessa Ding, Nicola Coom, Gina Nonumalo
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