This paper describes how a comprehensive model of healthcare successfully co-created a relationship-based approach to care with older Māori adults with high complex health and social needs. The study recruited 15 older Māori adults living with chronic conditions (on average, 4 chronic conditions each) in a poor urban and semi-rural community. All were enrolled with Ki A Ora Ngatiwai, a Māori Health Provider Organisation that embraces a community-based primary health care approach. Interviews held with the participants sought to understand their experiences about living with chronic conditions, accessing/receiving health and social services, the most important challenges faced daily and the quality of relationships with health professionals in Ki A Ora Ngatiwai. The material demonstrated that these older adults were motivated to actively engage with health professionals, seeking to build knowledge and skills to be more able to care for themselves and their extended whānau/family. They valued health professional relationships for their own sake with people who cared about them and attended to their social concerns. This relationship-based model extended beyond solely transactional healthcare services that provide access to services and entitlements. As they gained health literacy and became more self-sufficient, the participants willingly assumed new roles within the extended family and more widely, such as whānau advocate, health specialist, social support, communicator, marketer for (health) programmes and knowledge broker. The quality of healthcare delivered by Ki A Ora Ngatiwai was rated as “excellent”.
