Using rongoā Māori services

What is rongoā Māori?

It's traditional Māori healing with many different techniques including:

• mirimiri (bodywork)
• rākau rongoā (native flora herbal preparations)
• karakia (prayer), and more.

He ringa nā Rongo, he ringa nā te aroha. The hands of peace are the hands of love.

How you can use rongoā Māori

You must have a covered injury

If support for your injury is covered by us, you can request rongoā Māori as part of your rehabilitation. Request this through the ACC recovery team member who's managing your claim, or contact us:

Phone 0800 101 996
Email claims@acc.co.nz

Or through our online service MyACC:

Register or log in to MyACC

We'll talk to you about how your injury is affecting you and how you expect rongoā will help you to rehabilitate. You don't need to be referred to a rongoā Māori practitioner, but a clinician may support your request for rongoā Māori.

When you request access to rongoā Māori, we'll ask you to tell us which practitioner you would like to see, and we can help get you set up. We won't refer to specific practitioners for rongoā Māori services. 

Your recovery team member will need to approve your request for traditional Māori healing before you can start to receive care.

Rongoa Māori for maternal birth injuries

Services for kiritaki (clients) with a covered maternal birth injury are now available and funded through ACC to provide healing and rehabilitation.

Before we accept your claim

If you want to access rongoā Māori services before we accept your claim, you'll have to pay for it yourself.

If you haven't made a claim for your injury yet, call our Claims Helpline:

Phone 0800 101 996

You can also visit your GP, physiotherapist, or other health professional. They'll make a claim for you.

If you've experienced sexual abuse or assault, use our online search tool on the Find Support website to see the organisations that have therapists who can support you. This therapy is a free service, paid for by us.

Find Support

Using an ACC registered rongoā Māori practitioner

Practitioners must be registered with us to provide rongoā Māori services. If you want to see a practitioner we haven’t worked with before, we'll need to register them before approving your request. 

All rongoā Māori practitioners are subject to the requirements of the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994. 

How we pay for rongoā Māori

 We've looked at our approach to kaupapa Māori and mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to see how we can improve our services.

Rongoā Māori as social rehabilitation

We pay for rongoā Māori under the social rehabilitation category, which is separate from treatment. This is why you may hear ACC kaimahi (staff) refer to rongoā as rehabilitation, not treatment.

Where appropriate, we can consider rongoā Māori services with treatment or other rehabilitation, depending on your needs. Receiving rongoā Māori doesn't affect your entitlement to treatment.

Other social rehabilitation services aim to help you return to independence. Independence can include:

• carrying out daily tasks
• participating in education
• contributing to your whānau and community.

Paying rongoā Māori practitioners

We also pay or subsidise rongoā Māori practitioners to work with for kiritaki with a covered maternal birth injury. We talk to you to decide the number of sessions you need, depending on your injury.

Your practitioner will let us know how your rehabilitation is going and we'll work with you, so you get what you need.

We'll keep on working to improve Māori services

We've been changing our processes and we've developed guidance to help our people make the right decisions about requests for rongoā Māori.

Contact us

If you have questions about using rongoā Māori, complete the form below. 

Request more information about rongoā Māori