Improvement 06: Create informal health information sessions

Progress Update

Through the Health and Race Equality Forum (HAREF), a pilot programme of informal health information sessions has been run by the Health Improvement Service for Ethnic Minorities from the PCT.

At the Feedback Event on 22/03/10 the group agreed:

They felt more confident about the health issues that had been discussed during the sessions
They have had some sessions that were useful and they learnt new things
Workers need to be mindful of groups culture, religion and relationship structures
Workers should have equality and diversity training linked to the needs of the particular group they are working with.
Initial work with the group needs to be carried out to identify what the best approach to working with the group would be – it should be developed together
Holistic work with the group should be undertaken once relationships have been established

The group agreed that the next steps should be:

Names and contacts collected from each organisation that is happy to talk to them about their services in the community –the group will take the lead to invite people
Good approaches to this kind of work should be shared with new speakers – the sessions should be interactive, visual and pictorial with allocated time for questions
Statutory bodies need to make information accessible across the city
There should be more informal health information
The group will share what has worked for them with other groups

An evaluation of the sessions will be carried out and fed back to Newcastle Citizens Assembly.