Example 1 The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Purpose: The Primary Care Group in Newcastle wanted to find out more about the needs of their Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities so they: ¶understood how they described emotional distress from a cultural perspective ¶knew what support they would need to deal with distress ¶could use the outcomes to influence the services that local primary care groups would provide Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 A

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ²Setting up the project: ¶Pakistani and Bangladeshi community members were invited to join the project team through community advertisements ¶seventeen people submitted applications and were interviewed ¶thirteen were employed and joined the project team as paid Community Project Workers (CPWs) Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 B

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Roles of the user consultants: After training, they codesigned the project under the supervision of experienced service managers and researchers and: ¶developed the interview guides and interview process ¶advised on cultural matters ¶used their community networks to gain participants for the interviews who then encouraged others to participate ¶did the interview ¶analysed the information with a researcher ¶shared outcomes with community members/organisations Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 C

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ²Support provided to user consultants: ¶went through a 6 month training period – 6 hrs/week – the training was accredited through the National Open College ¶were supervised by experienced service managers and researchers on a regular basis ¶were paid project members on a part-time basis – they were able to work flexible hours after the training period was over Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 D

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Level of influence or decision-making: The CPWs had strong influence on all aspects of the project design. They: ¶were the main decision-makers about what questions to ask, how to ask them and how to run the interviews ¶were partners in the project analysis ¶guided the researcher in understanding what was said and why in the interviews ¶reviewed and confirmed the final descriptions of what the information meant about community members’ experiences and changes in services Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 E

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Activities that happened: ¶discussions about why services needed to be improved for these community members ¶initial training period ¶designed how to gain the information ¶did 104 interviews with community members ¶analysed information gained in interviews ¶shared information with different primary care groups, other local services and community members through regular meetings and formal presentations Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 F

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Outcomes achieved: The project led to these outcomes: ¶found out how mental health services were working for local ethnic minority groups ¶better location of support workers where community members could reach/visit them ¶brought in and trained more counsellors from Asian backgrounds to offer more culturally appropriate services ¶worked on a way to address racism in the local area Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 G

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Strategies for success: The main strategies were: ¶recruiting people directly from the community who understood how to involve community members ¶listening to their cultural advice with respect and building this into all parts of the project ¶providing extensive training and then doing a test run to help build the CPWs’ confidence ¶providing ongoing supervision for CPWs to help with any problems that occurred ¶communicating the outcomes back to the community so they know what had happened to their input Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 H

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Problems that occurred: ¶staff wanted to ask personal details that CPWs said community members would not give w staff learned to balance information they expected they could ask with what was culturally sensitive w if not they would lose valuable information because people would not participate or speak in detail ¶there was tension between staff supervising the CPWs and senior staff about how quickly the project should happen w senior staff realised that they were so familiar with wider health service issues that they forgot they were working with people who knew little about this - they needed to be more patient Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 I

Example 1: The needs of Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Newcastle ² Benefits achieved: ¶employed workers from Asian backgrounds in a community with a high unemployment rate ¶got good participation from a mostly non-English speaking disadvantaged population who had low literacy levels ¶gained in-depth information because the process was appropriate to the group ¶had solid information they could use to make service changes ¶learned about different views of what emotional distress is and how people show it – this will reduce misunderstanding between staff and community members Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 J

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ²Purpose: ¶To create partnerships between the public and health and social services to build community wellbeing on a housing estate in South London Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 K

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Setting up the project: ¶missing - residents’ views on what was wrong and what might be done to improve their wellbeing in the estate ¶Health Promotion Officer visited the estate to get to know people and what happened in the estate ¶existing community representatives were too busy with what they were doing to be involved ¶other people thought that the representatives did not consult with others and were not the best people to be involved ¶residents were nervous about being involved - eventually two agreed Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 L

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Roles of the user consultants: ¶join one of six work groups to look at different issues in the estate across different age groups ¶help decide on what these groups should be ¶influence the sorts of questions they needed to ask residents ¶use their social networks to invite residents to participate in the consultation meetings, activities or interviews. ¶suggest the best local places to reach out and get people involved Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 M

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ²Support provided to user consultants: ¶several 2 hour training sessions on how to do a participatory assessment process ¶in their work groups they had several meetings to plan what their group was going to do ¶they were not paid for their time Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 N

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Level of influence or decision-making: ¶equal team members who had as much say as anyone ¶staff involved were trained to listen, learn and keep quiet so that user consultants and residents could speak and be understood ¶staff shared their expertise where relevant ¶recommendations from residents and from the working groups were kept separate so it was clear where ideas had come from Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 O

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Activities that happened: ¶spent as much time as they could in the estate ¶talked with people in local places, met people for interviews, had displays in schools and the libraries ¶encouraged people to share their ideas ¶teams met together to share what they were learning ¶held a community feedback event - several hundred residents and staff from local services attended the event Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 P

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ²Outcomes achieved: ¶held a community planning day ¶compared outcomes and then agreed on priorities ¶held resident and staff discussion groups to come up with action plans ¶turned in a report with resident recommendations incorporated throughout it Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 Q

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Strategies for success: ¶training residents ¶using local networks to get a wider group of people involved ¶carrying out activities in the local area ¶creating activities in which lots of residents could participate ¶showing respect for what residents said so that they knew they were being taken seriously Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 R

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Problems that occurred: ¶recruiting residents – initially they were too busy or unsure about it, so they started with two residents and then expanded into a wider circle of people ¶lack of support from some senior managers - the project group were from different services and advocated within each service for support to continue – this was successful ¶the project being stopped early by a senior official – both residents and staff advocated for it to continue and succeeded with this Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 S

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Benefits achieved: ¶many residents took part in the assessment - and then attended the feedback and community planning sessions ¶residents saw the final report as belonging to them ¶senior people who initially criticised the project contacted the project team to get more information after the community event and made commitments to get funding to act on the recommendations in the report Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 T

Example 2: Improve community wellbeing ² Benefits achieved: ¶staff spent more time really listening to residents and building positive relationships ¶staff built user involvement into other areas of work ¶many services were improved or established ¶residents attended more meetings set up by staff ¶services worked together to gain funding and expand services Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 1 U

Thinking about practical issues – what does it mean for you? 1. Number of user consultants involved 2. Costs of involvement 3. What is the user consultant role description? 4. Being prepared for the role 5. At what stage are user consultants involved? 6. Office space or equipment 7. Number of methods for gaining user involvement used Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 2 A

Thinking about practical issues – what does it mean for you? 8. How much information you receive 9. Handling confidential information 10. Training 11. Mentoring 12. Your connection to a network of other users, carers, the public 13. Debriefing opportunities or support 14. Opportunity to reflect on what you learn 15. Dealing with personal difficulties Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust (Teaching) 2 B