A Northland nurse working to reduce the harm caused by youth drinking and to grow young leaders has won a $90,000 youth health fellowship.
Bernadette Hetaraka is this year’s winner of the Vodafone Foundation Youth Health Leadership Fellowship and was described by the selection team as an “inspirational” applicant.
“Bernie demonstrates a quiet but determined leadership in the development of youth-driven services,” said Maria Kekus, the chair of SYHPANZ (the Society of Youth Health Professionals).
“She has worked tirelessly alongside young people in the Whangarei Youth Space alongside her role as Youth Health Coordinator at Manaia Health sPHO.”
Hetaraka said the fellowship year provided her an enormous opportunity to research and identify innovative models of youth participation and youth-friendly services both in New Zealand and overseas that could be replicated in Northland and nationwide. She will be undertaking a sabbatical to Canada and the United States, including attending the World Congress of the International Association for Adolescent Health.
Mary Carthew, associate director of nursing for Manaia Health PHO said when Hetaraka was appointed to her youth health coordinator role in 2005 she brought a vast experience of working with young people both as a public health nurse and nurse educator.
“If asked what Bernie’s most outstanding achievements have been in her work with young people, it would be her focus on minimising the harm caused by alcohol with young people, and her work with recognising, developing and growing young leaders,” said Carthew.
“Bernie Hetaraka has made an extraordinary contribution to nursing, and to improving the health of young people.”
The Fellowship was established for promising mid-career researchers or practitioners with leadership potential to complete study, research or undertake a sabbatical. It is funded by the Vodafone New Zealand Foundation and managed in partnership with SYHPANZ.
