Communitydialogue

Working Lunch 18 Dec: Progress

Naim and I were really pleased with the turnout for our working lunch at Saint Peter's Health Centre this week.

12 guests attended, from a range of local community groups including SureStart, BuilD, Ansaar and the Pakistan Youth & Community Association. We had delicious healthy food to eat, lively discussion and I captured the key points of our 3 hour get- together using my new graphic recording skills. (The feedback to this was very encouraging, it went down a storm!).

Naim, our Community Health Development worker for Highfields said

I thought it went very well, the contribution from the attendees was very positive. The meeting opened up some very frank and interesting discussions on how we can address the issues around cook and eat and it was encouraging to see people taking ownership in wanting to take this initiative forward.

What next?

I will update all our Highfields contacts with the outcome of our working lunch, forward the graphicing images and set some objectives for January 2009; namely, for them to have a think about the enthusiastic volunteers in their respective communities that we can get involved in the project.

Working Lunch event

I have uploaded our invite to the Highfields Cook & Eat, Working Lunch event.  I thought this might be useful if you are arranging similar public events for your own projects.

Please note, this is NOT an open invitation!  As much as Naim and I would love to have you all over for lunch, we do have limited resources ;-)

View the invite here:  Download invite_textfinal.pdf

Date With The Doctor

...no, not a sci-fi adventure in the Tardis!  Something far more exciting; a meeting with Dr Kerbel of the Saffron Group Practice.  This was a positive step forward in the project and it is essential that we have insight into all the people involved with mental health in the area.

Dr Kerbel kindly talked me through some of his patient scenarios and the pathway that people might expect to follow, if they come to surgery with symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

A key thing that I wanted to ask him about was the resources available to GPs for signposting to community groups and therapies.  Dr Kerbel spoke favourably of LAMP http://www.lampdirect.org.uk/ , though the withdrawal of funding for this resource was an obvious barrier (can anyone out there elaborate on this?)

Interestingly, when I passed on the positive feedback from our residents group about the benefits of treatments like massage and reiki, Dr Kerbel made the connection between affluence and access to such treatments. 

Could we look at an initiative to get therapists involved on a voluntary basis?  And there's our idea of training our locals in some of these therapies too....

All in all a very good meeting and Dr Kerbel said that he (and hopefully some of his colleagues) would be willing to come and do a practical workshop / role-play excercise with our Keeping Saffron in Mind residents group.  This aims to improve understanding of local views and aspirations and fill in the gaps in service and resources that Saffron people want and need.

A Night At The SAFTAs

We had a great night at the SAFTAs last week, with Karen Pickering and our volunteers from Keeping Saffron in Mind.  The awards ceremony was held at the Samworth Enterprise Academy, which is an impressive new school located in the Saffron area.  It appeared to be a respected and well-liked landmark in this community, which is crucial for us to explore.

The SAFTAs celebrated local volunteers that were really making a difference, and also included a detailed participatory budget (PB) excercise.  I'd learnt about PB in a recent empowerment training course - but it was exciting to see it in action.  It's a wonderful example of communities taking ownership of funds and resources. (If you would like more info on how this worked, feel free to contact me).

Young people from the area were invited to perform dance and drama as part of the event, which gave the night a fun and uplifting feeling.  

Alison Kirk and I had the opportunity to present our work in Saffron, this was great as there were around 300 residents in the audience.  We encouraged more people to get involved.  It will be interesting to see how many people join the project, as a result of the SAFTAs and to develop some of the valuable partnerships that we made on the night.

It's worth sharing the comments of one of our Keeping Saffron in Mind volunteers, on the night; This person is severely affected by anxiety in his life and to our amazement stood up on the stage and addressed a  huge crowd of strangers, to tell them about the impact that volunteers in Saffron have had. When I congratulated him on the speech, he told me that watching the video clip of Ryan at our last meeting, had inspired him to stand up and speak out.  WOW!

Keeping Saffron in Mind: Meetings 2 & 3

We have just had our third meeting in Saffron and our group of residents and community workers are proving to be dedicated and enthusiastic.  This just goes to show that it's not always about giving people financial incentives to 'sign up' to focus groups;  if we offer ongoing support and enthusiasm as well as a real chance to make a difference, people are keen to get involved.

The first two meetings had given us the chance to get to know each other and build trust, providing a fluid and open forum.

The third meeting took a more structured approach, to allow us to steer the project forward and demonstrate to the group how we were starting to manifesting change.  I chose two relevant clips from the Saffron Carnival interviews, to stimulate discussion and share the feelings of other local people.

RECURRING THEMES

Mental Health Map

We can see the idea of a mental health map, emerging.  A 'web' of contacts, all of whom know about and can offer signposts to each other.  There is already a 'bank' of fabulous projects such as the Chill Out Club and Sow and Grow allotment projects that just need a bit of promotion and linking-up. A 'directory' of mental health and well-being services for Saffron, could be a possible tool for the tool-kit.

This map should also aim to improve communication with partners such as the Incapacity Benefit Office, local schools and councils so that we all have a better understanding of individual people.

Ministry of Mental Health

We could use and build on the wealth of skills and experiences that our Saffron residents have, to roll out to other members of the community.  This could be through training our passionate volunteers in therapies such as massage, reiki and relaxation techniques (perhaps offering a recognised accreditation as a bonus). 

Members of the group have enjoyed and valued therapies that have been offered as part of the Chill Out Club and feel strongly that this is help that they would benefit greatly from, ongoing.  They would be keen to share these feel-good therapies with friends and family.

Feelin' Groovy

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a part of the Community Dialogue Programme, however I think this is a perfect working example of the motto be the change you want to see.   New ways of thinking and communicating often have to start within the organisation, and then roll out to members of the public.

The feel good workshop was held at NHS Leicester City recently and looked at the importance of mental health and well-being to us all.  Through a series of interactive exercises, we focused on what made us feel good in our day-to-day lives (and what made us feel not so good).

Our facilitator talked us through some simple relaxation techniques, and as a group we shared ideas about meditation, exercise and even had a go at laughter therapy!

We also got the chance to see a new technique called ‘Graphic Recording’ in action;  this is a simple, visual technique that can be used to plot the journey of a forum or event whilst overcoming certain communication barriers.  It is helpful for people with learning difficulties, or for whom reading and writing is a challenge.  We were all excited by this technique and the opportunities to use this for recording our community resident meetings were obvious – so much so, that many of my NHS Leicester colleagues are now being trained to be in-house graphic recorders.

I feel that workshops like this will be a valuable tool in the Keeping Saffron in Mind tool-kit and a positive, practical step towards the prevention of low-level mental health problems. 

Cook & Eat: The Story So Far

We are making good progress with scoping the Highfields area, for our Cook & Eat project.  I thought it would be helpful to give an overview of our journey so far.

Where have we been?

In Highfields the health statistics and public feeling spoke for themselves and there was little question that our focus had to tackle the high rates of Diabetes and Heart Disease in the area.

Standard diet and nutrition advice hadn’t worked here in the past, because it didn’t fit with the recipes that people in Highfields like to cook and eat.  It was also felt that any solutions had to be sustainable by the community, funding could come and go but skills and aspirations would still be active.

Where are we now? 

Our community health development worker Naim Razak, has regular contact with local people and extensive knowledge of Highfields.  As a result, Naim is passionate that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not suitable here, because of the complex mix of nationalities and cultures.

So, we have a strategy not dissimilar to Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food.  Our strategy is to educate local people about healthy cooking techniques and ingredients, and roll out this knowledge through our ‘community connectors’ in ways that respect culture, faith and lifestyle.

We realise the importance of selling the benefits of healthy cooking and eating to this community, and making positive change easy, accessible and useful for local people.

Where are we going?

It is just as important to scope our doctors and clinicians, as it is our communities.  What are their barriers?  What support do they need?  We will meet with the local dietetics service over the next week or so, to set the scene of Cook & Eat and talk through the above. 

Slightly further ahead, we have proposed a ‘working lunch’ meeting in December for around 20 people.  Delegates will include the key contacts for local organisations such as the Caribbean Centre and Shama Women’s Centre, as our ‘hooks’ into the community connectors.  Again, the meeting will set the scene of the Community Dialogue Programme, especially the idea of ‘co-designing’.  It will also introduce the staff from NHS Leics City  that are involved and set actions to move the cook and eat sessions forward.

Who else could be involved?

We agreed that it will be essential to involve local schools, and we had some great ideas about healthy recipe competitions as a fun, interactive way of raising awareness.  Naim already has many contacts in this area, as a result of a similar project that took place last year.  It would be brilliant to get families working together on this; children supporting and educating their parents and grandparents, and older family members sharing recipes.  We identified the ‘National Healthy School Standard’ as a possible incentive to get schools involved.  GPs and health workers will also be a vital cog in the wheel of change, providing support, advice and signposts to cook and eat activities and community support.

Keeping Saffron in Mind: 1st Meeting

In Saffron, we now have a lively and enthusiastic group of volunteers that meet every two weeks to discuss mental health and pathways to well being. Many of the group members are local residents with first-hand experience of a mental health challenge, such as depression or anxiety. 

Karen Pickering, the Saffron Community Health Development Worker, said

“The community dialogue project is beginning to pick up pace in Saffron and is generating a lot of interest with residents and organisations alike, who are delighted to influence decisions and to be asked their opinions regarding NHS services…..”

All of the group members are keen to make a difference to Saffron, and it's exciting as we discuss shared hopes and possibilities.  The first discussion captured the following points:

CHALLENGES                                             

• Setting up social networks                           
• No continuity of projects                              
• Sustainability                                                
• Access to information                                  
• No robust system to refer to                        
• Local projects                                              
• Funding                                                         
• Do not parachute things into the                
• Community                                                   
• Relationships

SOLUTIONS

• Train local people
• Social courses
• Talking therapies
• Saffron women’s group
• Allotment Project
• Volunteers in the community
• Trust
• Commitment from community

The second meeting will aim to develop connections and rapport in the group and continue to capture ideas and feelings, which is a key part in our co-production process.

Saffron Carnival: Residents speak out

Watch local resident Ryan tell us about his own experiences in Saffron, here:

Ryan at Saffron Carnival 2008

Local resident Carol shares her views with me, here:

Carol at Saffron Carnival 2008

There are many more related videos from the day,  uploaded to Youtube.  As you will see, we gained a wealth of information from just being out and about talking to local people.  These comments and views act as a valuable benchmark for our Community Dialogue Projects, and it will be interesting to re-visit the area in 2009 to see how public opinion has evolved.

Leicester: Talk, learn and plan

Knowledge is power, as they say and that's where we are with the Saffron and Highfields Community Dialogue projects in Leicester.  We are in our scoping phase, getting to know Leicester people; what makes them tick?  What are their concerns?  How do they feel about healthcare in their area?  How can we best support them? 

Karen and Naim (our Community Health Development Workers) are rallying around, bringing residents, practitioners and NHS staff together, to talk, learn and plan.  How can we really begin to co-design healthcare solutions with the community for the community? 

In late summer, we joined the Saffron Summer Carnival to begin our research.  It was important to us to move away from questionnaires and form-filling, knowing that this in itself may create a barrier to sharing, for some people. We chose instead to create a 'roving reporter' vibe, with a small camera crew and myself and Alison as 'interviewers'.  This created a buzz, and a lot of interest from local people of all ages.

I was amazed at the openness and enthusiasm of Saffron people.  It occurred to me that most people are willing to talk, if we are willing to listen. 

The carnival was the perfect starting point to talk to residents and find out what was on their mind.  And, this is exactly what we discovered!  Mental Health challenges such as depression and anxiety seemed to underpin many of the residents concerns, and were also effecting matters indirectly with links to smoking, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and Incapacity Benefit.  So now we are officially 'Keeping Saffron in Mind'.