Cooper has more than 20 years of experience in mental health and addiction at MidCentral and spent the past four years as the locality manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really learned the resilience of a small team. Sometimes it was only me and one or two other nurses, so you had to really have each other\u2019s back. It was a fantastic time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cooper said his rural upbringing taught him transferable skills that were relevant in the healthcare scene. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt all interrelates,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have just got different names for things. Farmers have to be adaptive to the environment, to the price of things. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust convert that into a different language. We have also got to be adaptive; that is where we need to recruit creative people, people who can think critically and bring their best to the table, because you have to be adaptive to the complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper said his new role allowed him the opportunity to lead effective teams that deliver results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is unique to Whanganui is that this is an all-encompassing role.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inpatient as well as community, you get the opportunity to collaborate across the whole key continuum,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The population of the MidCentral catchment is 140,000, whereas the Whanganui catchment is about half that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is an exciting challenge; how do we have everything but at a smaller scale?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhanganui may be a smaller hospital, but the mahi is outstanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelationships are close-knit, and in districts like this one, we\u2019re investing deeply into our community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat family connection adds a unique depth to the way we provide care.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hoped to instil further evidence-based models and build on the existing cohesion with staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we keep our people well supported and high-performing, that lifts not only our staff but also our community,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur teams are our engine-rooms; if you keep them running smoothly and well oiled, they are far more effective in meeting the needs of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of work, Cooper enjoys mountain biking and dirt bike riding with his family.<\/p>\n
He is also halfway through his post-graduate studies with the Auckland University of Technology.<\/p>\n
Cooper is optimistic about the future of mental health and addiction services in Whanganui, claiming the city is \u201cquite far advanced\u201d in evidence-based models and collaboration with other services.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite exciting where health is heading in terms of digital solutions for some things to keep our workforce efficient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may not always know the answer, but we will find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper has more than 20 years of experience in mental health and addiction at MidCentral and spent the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[9776,5176,163567,7747,2796,184801,5554,161752,34444,3576,106876,105,1867,2207,11627,32505,218,119406,9641,16,15,29336,6095,8727],"class_list":{"0":"post-586059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-addiction","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-associate","11":"tag-at","12":"tag-brent","13":"tag-closeknit","14":"tag-community","15":"tag-cooper","16":"tag-director","17":"tag-for","18":"tag-forward","19":"tag-health","20":"tag-hospital","21":"tag-hospitals","22":"tag-looking","23":"tag-mental","24":"tag-mental-health","25":"tag-named","26":"tag-new","27":"tag-uk","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-whanganui","30":"tag-with","31":"tag-working"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}