简体中文
EnglishWhere Can I Find Trusted Health Information for New Zealand?
Updated
Healthify (healthify.nz) is a New Zealand-specific health information website covering health conditions, medicines, symptoms, self-care and wellbeing topics. It is a registered charity and describes itself as "Aotearoa New Zealand's trusted, independent home for health, medicines and wellbeing topics, self-care resources and tools." Use it when you want plain-language, NZ-relevant information before or after seeing a health professional — not as a replacement for diagnosis or urgent care.
What Healthify Covers
The site is organised around a few core sections, visible from its homepage:
| Section | What you'll find |
|---|---|
| Health A-Z | Condition and symptom topics, including newly updated ones such as long COVID and panic disorder |
| Medicines A-Z | Medicine information pages |
| Videos | "100s of health and wellbeing videos," including a set of four short videos on preparing for and recovering from surgery |
| Find healthcare in a hurry | A quick link for locating health services |
| Resources | Orderable Healthify resources and newsletters |
The homepage also highlights specific campaigns and courses, for example a free online gout mini-course available in te reo Māori, Gagana Sāmoa and lea faka-Tonga, alcohol-harm reduction content (Ngā Pou Oranga), and Parkinson's information aimed at Pacific Peoples and Māori.
How to Look Something Up
- Start with Health A-Z or Medicines A-Z depending on whether you have a condition/symptom or a medicine name in mind. The homepage lists these as the two main entry points.
- Check the "new and updated topics" area if you want recently reviewed content — the site flags updates (for example, long COVID and hearing tests for babies).
- Use the video library when you prefer watching to reading; the surgery-preparation videos are a concrete example of content designed for a specific task.
- Use "Find healthcare in a hurry" when your question is "where do I go?" rather than "what is this?"
- Expected result: a plain-language topic page you can read before an appointment, use to prepare questions, or share with whānau.
Practical Features Worth Knowing
- Preferred source setting: the site invites you to add Healthify as a preferred source in search so it appears first for trusted health knowledge.
- Newsletters: you can sign up from the homepage to get updates.
- Orderable resources: printed Healthify resources can be ordered — useful for clinics, schools or community groups.
- Free skills sessions: the site promotes free one-hour St John sessions covering CPR, defibrillator use and emergency response, bookable across Aotearoa New Zealand (the homepage lists October sessions). The site also hosts a "How to do CPR" page.
- Charity status: Healthify states it is a registered charity supported by supporters — relevant if you want to know who funds the content you're reading.
Limits and When to Seek Care
Healthify is an information and self-care resource, not a clinical service. Nothing on the site examines you, and general information may not match your situation. If symptoms are severe, worsening or urgent, contact a health professional or emergency services rather than relying on a website. For ongoing concerns, use what you read to prepare questions for your GP or pharmacist.
If you're specifically researching a condition, a reasonable workflow is: read the Healthify topic, note anything unclear, then confirm it with a NZ health professional who knows your history.