Construction on the organisation's new wellbeing centre, which will be erected just metres away from its existing site, on the ground that originally housed College Street School, formally began yesterday.
"This certainly started 20 years ago, and it has gone through ups and downs and periods of consolidation," said Matapura Ellison, a board member of Ōtākou Health Ltd.
The hub's plans include providing mental health treatments as well as outpatient clinics for a variety of services such as paediatrics, rheumatology, endocrinology, cardiology, and diabetes.
Te Kāika anticipates that the co-located facility would allow multidisciplinary teams to collaborate to offer holistic care for complete families: in addition to providing healthcare, additional workers on site might assist with things like benefit applications, budgeting guidance, and accessing entitlements.
